Agbogbloshie scrap dealers given 10-acre land at Kofi Kwei to relocate

• Government has finally found a befitting land for relocation for the scrap dealers at Agbogbloshie

• The 10-acre land at Kofi Kwei is to be their new home

• The scrap dealers had raised concerns that they were discriminated against and were misled to believe they were not included in the demolition that happened at Agbogbloshie

After countless calls and agitations for the government to give them a befitting place for relocation, as has been done for the onion market at Agbogbloshie, government has finally responded accordingly.

A ten-acre land at Kofi Kwei in the Ga South Municipality has been announced as the new land secured for the scrap dealers to move to.

It comes on the back of their eviction, along with the onion market at Agbogbloshie, on Thursday, July 1, 2021, reports citinewsroom.com.

Making this known in an interaction with the leadership of the Greater Accra Scrap Dealers Association, Henry Quartey, the regional minister for Greater Accra, also announced a GHS100,000 package for the union as a form of support for their transportation to their new home.

“Today, as we speak, we have been able to acquire ten acres of land for them and of the ten acres, we are using two acres to build the toilets and washroom facilities for them, a small clinic, a police station, and a mosque.

“We want them to move there, whiles the building of these facilities are done. It will not take long, but we have to speak to the Ghana Police Service to deploy some personnel to be on-site, but we want to encourage them to move to the place,” he said.

Mohammed Ali, who is the General Secretary of the group, expressed his appreciation to the government while appealing to the minister to order the security officers supervising the demolition of the scrapyard at Agbogbloshie to be more temperate in their handling of the people there, even as they do their work.

He explained that for some of the personnel, they have been inconsiderate with them.

“We want to make an appeal to your office that we understand this is an ongoing exercise, and therefore some of our people are elsewhere this same business, and other related businesses are also going to suffer the same fate.

“We want to plead that some of your bulldozers and the way they go about their actions, they need to tone down,” he said.

Before now, the scrap dealers had expressed their disappointments in the authorities, stating that all throughout the process to relocate the onion market, they had continuously been told that they were going to be part of the affected persons.

Since assuming office as the Greater Accra regional minister, Henry Quartey, has been leading a campaign called, “Let’s make Accra work” to improve the city of Accra; one befitting the status of a capital city.

Some of them have included the restoration of discipline at the Madina Zongo Junction and the promise to put an end to trading along major streets in Accra, which he says contribute to the generation of filth in the city.