Business activities at the Sekondi Railway station have come to stand still as the STMA demolishes illegal structures to make way for the reconstruction of the Sekondi market.
The traders, mainly dressmakers, mini restaurant owners and cold store operators are facing evacuation from their business locations.
It could be recalled that on Friday October 28, The Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) disclosed that today Monday 7th November, 2022 it will demolish all unauthorized structures at Sekondi Railway Station close to European Town in Sekondi.
This action they said follows the eviction notice served to owners of affected structures in 2021 and the subsequent stakeholders meeting held on Monday, 24th October, 2022 at the Sekondi Youth Center.
Meanwhile speaking Beach Newsroom, these traders revealed that they have been disconnected from the power supply as a result of the evacuation.
They, however, plead with authorities to pity them as times are hard.
“They’ve not been fair to us. For some of these containers before you move them, you need time because of how it’s been installed, our greatest worry has to do with time. The notice of eviction was too short, so we are pleading with the authorities to give us some more time “
” I’m a dressmaker, we know they are evicting us because of the lifestyle some people portray here, but that shouldn’t be the basis because some of us are trading in businesses that aid us in taking care of our families.
Also, they should give us a specific date so we put our things in order within the time frame, evicting us in these hard times will do more harm than good, we know we are encroaching on government property but we are pleading with the authorities to give us an extension with the time so we move out without any struggle.”
“This has been home, we’ve started our families and built our businesses here, the ECG just came in to take our meter now we don’t have light to work with, the ECG should have given us notice on when they would embark on this exercise so we plan on what to do,”
On his part, the spokesperson for the affected people with the name Uncle Johnny appealed to city authorities to extend the duration of the demolition exercise because the dwellers are making a legitimate living.
According to him, the people pay their taxes to the Assembly adding that cold store operators mostly are losing their capital due to the unavailability of power supply.
” There are about 3,000 structures to be demolished here. It won’t be easy to rebuild them. They should give the people here some ample time. There should be a dialogue at least because the people over here are good citizens, they are law-abiding citizens. The STMA comes here to collect taxes from them.
Each person pays an amount of 200 cedis.
The ECG came here and took away all the electric meters without any notice.
Most people operate in cold stores as fishing is the dominant work here, and since there’s no power supply the fish are going bad and this will make them incur losses.
We plead with authorities to give us some time to relocate,” He said.
Story by Benedicta Ackney
