Drama at Kotokuraba Market over space

There was drama on Wednesday at the temporary market at Kotokuraba in Cape Coast when squatters from the old market engaged in hot verbal exchanges with security personnel in a bid to create space for themselves.

Traders, both young and old, rushed to the market with their tables and stalls in a bid to allocate spaces for themselves in the open shed created for them.

When the GNA visited the scene at about 0800 hours the Metropolitan Guards who were deployed at the site prevented the squatters from moving, resulting in a melee between the guards and the traders.

Some young men were also spotted digging the ground around the market to mount their shops but the guards stopped them.

A middle-aged woman, Maame Ama who the GNA spoke to, said “Eh, you people have not provided any place for us, yet you want to demolish the very structure that shelters us at the Kotoka market.”

She said the market authorities had failed to register the squatters at the Kotoka market, which was close to the new temporary facility, thereby preventing them from owning the new sheds as their fellow traders.

She said they had therefore moved their stalls and tables to the new market since the authorities were demolishing the old structure.

Inside the temporary market, scores of traders were in queues awaiting their turns to be re-registered and the keys to their sheds handed over to them.

Mr.Alex Damptey, a Member of the Kotokuraba Market Management Team, told the GNA that the squatters had been allocated an open space at the new structure but they had to wait for proper allocation after going through the registration exercise.

On the court injunction placed on the demolition of the market, Mr. Damptey said the injunction was placed on the demolition of the old Kotokuraba Marketand not the Kotoka market.

Asked why the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly was organizing the registration and the handing over exercises again, Mr Damptey explained that a careful scrutiny of their list confirmed that some traders had used different identities to register more than once.

Mr.Damptey, who works with the Waste Management Division of the Metro Assembly, said fresh names of traders kept swelling their registration list, hence the final registration and handing over of keys on Wednesday.