Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly demolishes old market

Bolgatanga, Jan 11, GNA - The Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly

has demolished structures belonging to individuals at the market

site to pave way for the building of a new market. The proposed market complex will have offices, super markets

and banks but the traders have expressed displeasure about the

demolition exercise. The traders should have moved to a renovated market about six

years ago but they refused, claiming the new place was small and

could not contain all of them. The Bolgatanga Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Epsona Ayamga,

said it was not true that the renovated site was too small to contain

them and said they were just refusing to move. He said the traders had been served with notices to move to the

renovated market by the Assembly some six years ago and

recently radio announcements were made to remind them to that

effect but they have refused to move to the area. "Over the years many attempts to move them from the temporal

market has been a problem and politics read into it. I think the time

is up now. The demolishing is not bad because we have to create

space for bigger development," Mr Ayamga said. "The Bolgatanga Municipality also deserves Development. If

you care to know 2011 has been declared an 91Action Year' by the

President and we must all make sure it works." Mr Ayamga said other regional capitals were developing and

Bolgatanga should not be left behind and added 93We have no bad

intention against the traders; the action is for the good of Upper

East region and Municipality as a whole." Most of the affected traders, numbering over 1,000, said they

were surprised by the action of the Municipal Chief Executive and

the Assembly for the demolition exercise on Saturday which was a

market day. They said they had planned to pack their things and to move to

the renovated market site on Sunday but the Municipal Assembly

arranged for a bulldozer and security personnel to destroy their

stores with their wares. The traders said the demolition exercise also created a free day

to thieves who took advantage of the situation to steal items from

unsuspecting store owners under the guise of helping them to pack

their items. They said the renovated market was not large enough to contain

all the traders and that the few market stalls had been taken over by

others leaving majority of them not having access to the market

stalls. The traders were forced to move to the new market site for a

temporal stay about 10 years ago for the old market to be

renovated to befit the status of a Municipality.