Policemen preventing the traders from protesting
A LAST minute intervention by armed policemen prevented possible riots by some angry traders in the Kumasi Central Market on Tuesday.
The traders, including women and men, were angry because they said the city authorities were not treating them fairly.
According to the traders, the city authorities were forcibly ejecting them from the market to pave way for the Kumasi Central Market Redevelopment Project.
The traders were therefore planning to cause trouble in the market to push their grievances, but the police intervened at the right time.
Eye witnesses said indeed the traders were angry as they were ready to cause commotion but the police stopped them in their tracks.
Before the police arrived, the angry traders had ripped off some of the metal sheets, used to fence the market, to enable construction works to start.
Some of the traders said their wares had been locked up in the market due to the roofing sheets used to barricade the market, hence their wild actions.
According to them, they would only abide by the law if the city authorities properly relocated them to help protect their businesses.
Meanwhile, Eric Yeboah, the Chairman of Central Market Traders at Adehyie Line, said on Akoma FM that the city authorities were treating them bad.
He said the traders visited the market on Tuesday morning only to see the place locked up, so they could not get access to their wares and goods.
The traders, he said, were trying to be law-abiding people so they were not ready to resort to violence and lawlessness to drum home their grievances.
Mr. Yeboah, however, admonished the city authorities to properly relocate the traders to the Race Course so their businesses would not collapse.
The angry traders later met at the Jubilee Park in Kumasi to determine their next line of action.
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi