The Ashanti Regional Security Council (REGSEC) on Monday, April 22, 2024, forced traders at the Kwadaso Onion Market out with bulldozers. Traders rushed to salvage their wares as bulldozers accompanied by armed police and military personnel stormed the market on Monday.
According to the Ashanti Regional Security Council, REGSEC, the demolition is necessary due to the security risks posed by the activities at the Kwadaso Onion Market.
The Council pointed to parking of heavy-duty trucks on the road near the market causing vehicular traffic. It said a 45-year-old woman recently lost her life at the place as a result.
REGSEC said the traders were given up till April 21, 2024, to relocate to a new designated area at Atwima-Takyiman but the majority of them refused. The traders, however, said they were not informed.
“We were at the workplace and we saw the military and police are all over with a bulldozer that…that the Regional minister and MCE are relocating us. We were not aware of that,” the traders told Citi News.
“We just heard it on the radio and you cannot relocate somebody based on what he heard on the radio. You have to give the person an official notice and time…maybe three months or four months that we are relocating you before you can relocate us,” a trader said.
The Kwadaso Onion Market traders emphasized that they were not informed and they were even thinking they could pay for the place. According to them, they were raising funds to buy the place only to be met with this impromptu demolition.
“You cannot just come this morning and say you are relocating us. That you got a place at Atwima-Takyiman and that we should go there, which is not fair,” a trader lamented. Adding, “we were told that they were selling the place to us. That is what our elders told us and we were gathering money to pay for it.”