Tension is brewing at Kejetia Market in the Kumasi Metropolis of the Ashanti Region as cloth sellers protest against the police for storming their shops to seize thousands of suspected smuggled goods.
Some police officers, together with officials from some textile companies, reportedly seized textiles worth GH¢500,000 on Tuesday, May 21, 2024, suspecting that the goods contained designs belonging to the textile company.
Following the development, some traders at the Kumasi Kejetia Market have closed down their shops to protest what they describe as harassment from the Ghana Police Service and some textile companies in the country.
They noted that one Kia truck loaded with textiles had been impounded by the officials.
Speaking to OTEC News reporter Kwame Agyenim Boateng, the queen mother of the cloth sellers at Kejetia, who doubles as the Chairperson for the Ashanti Regional Cloth Sellers Association, Nana Yaa Boadu, said they committed no offense to deserve what the police did to them.
She added that the clothes in question passed through all the necessary documentation at the port, adding that she finds it difficult to comprehend what the police did.
She noted that the traders will embark on a massive demonstration against authorities in the region over the police and textile companies harassing cloth dealers in the region.