Govt offers GH¢100,000 to Agbogbloshie scrap dealers for relocation
The government has provided GH¢100,000 to scrap dealers at the Agbogbloshie market to seek a new venue to ply their trade.
In addition, a 10 acre-land has been secured at Kofi Kwei in the Ga South Municipality as their new hub.
Two acres of the land has been set aside for the construction of a medical facility, police station, mosque and washrooms, to make their stay at the new place comfortable.
This was announced by the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey, when he interacted with the leadership of the Greater Accra Scrap Dealers Association on Monday, July 5.
“We want them to move there when the building of these facilities is done. It will not take long but we have to speak to the Ghana Police Service to deploy some personnel to be on-site,” the minister said.
The General Secretary of the Association, Mohammed Ali pleaded with the minister to ask the security officers spearheading the demolition exercise in the scrapyard to be measured in their actions.
He said security officers and operators of machines used for the demolition exercise should ensure that no one gets injured in the process.
“We want to plead that you talk to the people. Some of your bulldozers and the way they go about their actions, they need to tone down,” he appealed.
Decongestion of the Agbogbloshie market
The scrap dealers had earlier rejected the evacuation by the team from the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council (RCC).
The decongestion exercise commenced last Thursday, with the relocation of the onion sellers to a new market at Adjen Kotoku, a suburb on the outskirts of Accra in the Ga West Municipal Assembly.
The onion sellers were to be relocated alongside the scrap dealers, cattle rearers, and others.
But the scrap dealers were said to have started the burning of used vehicle tyres in protest of their removal from the spot they have occupied for nearly two decades.
According to them, they were not served with an eviction notice.
They were reported to have pelted security officials with stones, and in response, the security task force fired tear gas and warning shots to disperse them.
READ ALSO: Govt Provides GH¢500,000 For Traders To Relocate To Adjen Kotoku
Greater Accra minister resolves to make Accra work
Meanwhile, the Greater Accra Regional Minister has indicated his resolve to see to it that the country’s capital is made clean, which includes the decongesting of the central business district.
This exercise forms part of a larger ‘let’s make Accra work’ campaign, which is aimed at improving the health, sanitation conditions in the national capital.
In the middle of June, Quartey claimed that he had uncovered a plot by some Agbogloshie traders to kill him to stop plans to relocate them from the market.
The traders, mostly onion sellers who were unhappy with plans of eviction from their current place to the abandoned Adjin Kotoku site, had vowed to take action to defend their interests, according to Quartey.
But the minister said he was unperturbed and will remain strong in his quest to make Make Accra Work.
“Whether they like it or not, we will move them because we have made an alternative arrangement for them. I have heard they have gone to some mallam [spiritualist] to kill me. They are kidding.
“They should tell the mallam [spiritualist] to return to his hometown because so far as God exists, nothing will happen to Henry Quartey, and by July 1, 2021, we shall move them,” he said on an Accra-based Net 2 TV.
On June 28, the RCC provided GH¢500,000.00 to traders as transportation cost to relocate from the Agbogbloshie Market in Accra to the Adjen Kotoku Market.
According to Mr Quartey, the money was to be divided in this way: Onion sellers would receive GH¢300,000.00, cattle rearers would get GH¢100,000.00; scrap dealers, GH¢50,000.00, and truck pushers, GH¢50,000.00.