Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Tuesday July 26, 2011.
Gun-wielding policemen yesterday stormed Danquah Circle at Osu, Accra to eject people who operate as petty traders on a piece of land lying between the Koala Shopping Arcade and the Danquah –Labone stretch.
The police demolished all structures on the piece of land and as at noon yesterday some of the wares were still dumped in the median and sides of the Ring Road.
According to Superintendent Sylvester Boyuo Bawiise who supervised the operation, the police were there to enforce an order of the court with a bailiff called Mr. Inkoom.
He showed Daily Guide a writ of possession issued by a in favour of one Owusu Akyem Danquah who had initiated the court action against the Chief Registrar of Lands and others for possession of the land.
“We were given approval by our Legal Department at the Police Headquarters. It is not as if we did not have any mandate to clear this place.”
Superintendent Bawiise said the police does not endorse acts of indiscipline and added that the squatters comported themselves when they asked them to vacate the land.
“We did not encounter any resistance. Nobody confronted us. We did our work according to law.”
Howerver, some of the affected traders accused the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) whose name did not even appear in suit as being behind the demolition.
Sogbe Benedict Tustle, one of the affected hawkers claimed that they were never informed of the exercise and therefore they could not evacuate their wares.
“We do not blame the police. We understand that they are carrying out a court order. We will rather blame the government who has made it difficult for some of us to find decent jobs.”
He said the approach adopted by the AMA to rid the city of hawkers is heightening the already tensed unemployment situation and added that the action of hawkers has the tendency to affect the economy negatively.
“There are no jobs and anytime we strive to create something, the government will use the AMA to destroy them. They should know that Ghana belongs to all of us”.
“We have families and other mouths to feed at home but we are not allowed to work and make a living. We cannot continue to build a prosperous country if we got about things in a haphazard manner.”
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