Police fire at traders

Security personnel yesterday fired rubber bullets and tear gas at traders who refused to allow the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to demolish the Kantamanto market for reconstruction.

The security personnel were met with stiff opposition from the traders when they went to the area to restore sanity to allow AMA to pull down the remaining structures to make way for the proposed reconstruction of the market.

While rubber bullets and tears gas were being fired, the traders, in retaliation, threw stones and sticks at the security personnel.

About 10 traders were arrested in the melee, which started last Monday night.

Many of the traders got injured as a result of the confrontation and had to be rushed to the hospital for treatment.

Some collapsed after inhaling the tear gas fired at them.

This follows a fire outbreak which razed down hundred of stalls at the Kantamanton market last Sunday morning destroying property worth several million Ghana Cedis and displacing many traders.

The AMA boss, at a press conference on Monday, said the Kantamanto market would be rebuilt, warning traders not to go back to rebuild it themselves and subsequently ordered for the demolition of the stores and buildings that survived the fire outbreak.

The traders, however, objected to the AMA’s proposition to rebuild the market for them. Their reason was that the new stalls would be given to different people, once they were completed by the AMA.

An attempt by the traders, therefore, to prevent the AMA from demolishing the remaining structures of the market for reconstruction resulted in the clash with security personnel, who had been deployed there to ensure sanity.

To further express their dissatisfaction with the situation, the traders took to the streets to demonstrate their displeasure about the way government was handling their situation.

They have threatened to head for court for the determination of ownership of the market.

The traders say they are preparing to go to court to stop government and city authorities from taking over the market.

They want an injunction to be placed on the land to prevent any development until a final ruling.

Addressing a press conference in Accra, the Chairman of the Ghana Union Traders Association (GUTA), Daniel Adu Buor, expressed disappointment in the police and AMA for shooting tear gas and rubber bullets at them.

According to him, the shooting of tear gas and rubber bullets at traders would not solve the problem.

He called on President John Dramani Mahama to immediately institute a committee to look into the matter in order to find amicable solution to it.

Adu Buor said the committee that would be established should include leaders of the various associations at Kantamanto to ensure effective dialogue.