Following the demolition exercise that was undertaken by some unknown people at the Opera Square in Accra Central, on Sunday, March 28, 2021, President of the Ghana Union Traders Association (GUTA), Dr Joseph Obeng, has reacted to the incident.
He stated that the traders in the affected area, especially the electrical wares dealers will not sit aloof to watch people end their jobs because of their political affiliations and selfish interests.
He noted that the affected traders are ready to meet whoever was behind the demolition of their make shift tables and chairs over the weekend boot for boot.
Dr Joseph Obeng in an exclusive interview with GhanaWeb’s Ernestina Serwaa Asante stressed that, “We are not also going to sit down for anybody to use any influence from whichever corner to come and bully us into submission…As you saw at Opera Square, the boys are very ready to meet up force with force and that it won’t help anybody.”
“It doesn’t serve anybody’s interest for these guys to have been there for over 30 years for one person to just come out of nowhere and say that because I am connected somewhere, I am using my influence to bring you containers,” he added.
He described the exercise taken by the faceless demolishers as illegal and uncalled for as they did not have the backings of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA).
The GUTA President explained that these tabletop electrical cables traders are comfortable with their position as they can freely move from one place to the other.
“They have rejected because they said this is a lorry park and there are so many hydrants and that they don’t want the place to be bulky so they are very okay with the tabletop arrangement and then they’ve demarcated with red lines so what is the essence for anybody to go back to something that the AMA abhors."
"It is also going to block the view of other shops so we have to look at the whole thing in a comprehensive manner,” he added.
