A scene from Agbogbloshie yesterday. Picture by Nii Adjei Mensahfio
The ejection of onion sellers, scrap dealers and squatters from the Old Fadama enclave, including the Agbogbloshie Market in Accra yesterday, was greeted with gunshots.
The exercise, about which notice was served earlier and monies doled out to associations to cater for the transportation of the traders, was eventful nonetheless.
The scrap dealers section of the slum became the epicentre of what turned out to be a military operation.
The scrap dealers unlike the onion traders put up a fight as they set used tyres on fire on the street to deny access to the police and soldiers.
The thick billowing smoke emanating from the burning tyres was observed by reporters who accompanied officials of the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council as they arrived at the scene of the exercise.
The scrap dealers, taking cover from the burning tyres, pelted a fire tender which advanced towards the fire with stones, forcing it to retreat.
Soldiers deployed for the operation advanced towards the scrap dealers so they could calm them.
They too received a similar reception from the war-chanting scrap dealers amid the firing of shots. The soldiers fired warning shots in the melee.
The scrap dealers argued that they were not served any notice to vacate the place, hence their resistance.
The dislodged slum/market was a haven for cattle ranching; the owners of the hundreds of cows in the area now relocated following the exercise.
The location served the needs of criminals; the weapon firing during the exercising clearly pointing at this fact.
Various efforts had been employed by the onion traders and others at the market, including threats, but the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey, was not deterred as he promised to carry through the exercise.
It is now over and the place is now a heap of broken down wood, roofing sheets and filth after bulldozers were used to clear portions of unauthorised structures erected there.
Those who associated the decongestion exercise with the NPP quickly descended upon the party’s billboards, destroying them with vengeance.
Perhaps the most difficult aspect of the ‘Let’s Make Accra Work’ exercise has been the onion market and for that matter the sprawling Agbogbloshie slum. This has, however, been surmounted albeit eventfully.
Earlier, Mr. Quartey had during a durbar at the new location for the onion market, Adjen Kotoku in the Ga West Municipality, handed over the facility to the traders alongside the presentation of monies to facilitate their transportation to the new place.
After yesterday’s exercise, the Regional Minister described it as successful.
According to him, his earlier projection that the exercise would last three days had to be reviewed to a little under a fortnight.
“There is a lot to do at the place because behind the façade are many assignments to be undertaken before declaring the operation over,” he said.
By Nii Adjei Mensahfio