KMA boss fights drivers

Information reaching Today point to the fact that the Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive, Kojo Bonsu, has ordered members of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) operating at the Suame Roundabout in Kumasi to vacate the area within 30 days.

Grapevine sources from the Assembly disclosed that the mayor met the transport operators on June 5 in a “non-publicized” meeting where he advised them to choose between the Afia Kobi Market, popularly known as Abinkyi or the Suame Highway Express Station.

However, it is not clear when the 30-day ultimatum starts.

The paper’s investigation revealed the order by the mayor to the transport operators is as a result of his predecessor’s inability to eject drivers from the roundabout due to their supposed strong connections at the presidency.

A former Mayor of the Assembly, Mr. Samuel Sarpong, attempted several times, but failed to eject the transport operators from the area.

In a telephone interview with the Public Relations Officer for the Assembly, Godwin Nyame, said his boss’ approach to decongesting the city is through “dialogue.”

“The Hon. Mayor has met the two groups, and he is yet to meet the owner of the Suame Highway Express Station and operators of the Afia Kobi Lorry Station.

[He] thinks that before he decongests a place he is supposed to make the occupants understand why they are to leave, so that such an exercise is not mistaken for heartless eviction,” he told this reporter on phone.

When Today contacted the transport operators at the Suame Roundabout, the leaders expressed readiness to vacate the place but indicated that they were yet to choose one of the two venues the mayor had suggested to them.

The chairmen of the drivers’ unions, Kwadwo Yeboah, Francis Abi, Abdul Razak Abugri aka CK, and Baba Amadu (BA) all told this reporter they were preparing to leave the place as agreed with the mayor.

“We have been labeled recalcitrant just because we refused to leave here last year, and I think it was because of the wrong approach the then mayor [adopted.] But now we are prepared to leave as Hon. Bonsu has showed us some respect,” Kwadwo Yeboah said.

Even though they admitted that the area was dangerous to operate in, they were also not happy with the way the former mayor evicted them from the Race Course where they were happily doing their business.

Few years ago, the KMA embarked on a massive decongestion exercise using a combined team of police and military personnel and tried to eject drivers and traders from the area, which has been earmarked for a five-star hotel project that is yet to see the light of day.