Ho market women demonstrate against Municipal Chief Executive

Some members of the Ho Central Traders Association, in the Volta region, have embarked on a demonstration to register their displeasure about alleged actions taken by the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) and officials of the Assembly.

The traders’ allegations included the formation of a market management committee by Mr Divine Bosson, the Municipal Chief Executive and Assembly officials without the inclusion of the Market Queen and other executives of the Association.

They also claimed that the market toll and other charges had been increased by the Assembly without consulting them for their input.

It was based on these and other reasons that the traders took to the streets of the city carrying placards with inscriptions such as, “the MCE must go, Mr President, we want a change now, the MCE is too authoritative, the MCE must go for harassing the traders and the MCE is not ready to work with market executives and we need proper security system in the market”.

The demonstrators started their procession from the market area through the Civic Centre, walking along the principal street to the Volta Regional Coordinating Council (VRCC), where they presented a petition to the Regional Minister and a copy sent to the Municipal Assembly.

The traders, in their petition signed by Madam Joyce Norvixoxo, the Market Queen, to Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, the Volta Regional Minister, alleged that upon the assumption of office, Mr Bosson had refused to work with the Market Queen and other executives of the Traders Association.

“As we write, our Queen Mother has just been arrested and detained for three and half hours by the Police upon the instruction of the MCE just because she was trying to resolve a problem between market women where one called the MCE.”

The traders said they had observed that Mr Bosson had the intention of using the NIB, the police and his foot soldiers to harass members and the Market Queen, for no apparent reason.

They stressed that the Market Queen and the executives were not operating on their own but were duly selected and appointed by Mamaga Akua-Dei II, the Paramount Queen of the Asogli State, chiefs, and elders of the State, and witnessed by members of the Assembly under the former MCE.

The traders said they had been suppressed to their fullest limit by the actions of the current MCE and his foot soldiers and hence called on the Minister to intervene to address the situation.

Mr Augustus Kwaku Awity, the Chief Director of the Volta Regional Coordinating Council, who received the petition on behalf of the Regional Minister said a committee would be constituted to investigate the issues and appropriate actions taken to address them.

Responding to the allegations, Mr Bosson said, the supposed market queen only assumed the position when her ailing mother, the designated market queen got indisposed and claimed that no document at the Assembly had ever given anyone a right to operate as such.

He said there were adverse findings against Madam Norvixoxo in the distribution of stalls and extortion, for which the Assembly found it difficult to work with her.

Mr Bosson, however, confirmed the formation of a new Market Management Committee to maximise revenue collection while an invitation to the traditional leadership for a representation was yet to be actualised.