Anloga carpenters refuse to re-locate

Kumasi, Aug. 31, GNA - The Anloga Carpenters Union has expressed surprise at the refusal by some of its members to re-locate to the Sokoban Wood Village to pave way for the construction of a by-pass at Oforikrom-Asokwa.

The carpenters were to relocate on August 28, 2009 to an ultra-modern centre built for them by government with funds from France but some of them refused to move. Attempts by "Goemodel Haulage Firm", contractors of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly's Resettlement Committee, to move heavy carpentry equipment and machinery from Anloga to the new location was met with pockets of resistance on the first day.

Revered Samuel .K. Fugah, a leader of the Union, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that he found the turn of events "worrying" as they had all, earlier agreed to move to the Sokoban Village. Already the road project, designed to help ease traffic congestion in the Kumasi Metropolis is behind schedule. The carpenters claimed that their businesses would collapse because their customers would not be prepared to travel to the new location which is about five-kilometre away. They also argued that there were not enough sheds at the village to accommodate the over 4,000 carpenters expected to be resettled there. Rev. Fugah, however, discounted this, insisting that the concerns had already been addressed by a meeting between the Union and the Resettlement Committee.

He warned that those, who refused to re-locate did so at their own risk since they had no basis for the "hard-line" position. The leadership of the Union, he said, would hold an emergency meeting and later confer with the Metropolitan Chief Executive on how to deal with the situation.

Meanwhile, Geomodel, in spite of the resistance, on Monday evacuated some equipment and working tools belonging to the carpenters to the Village. 31 Aug. 09