Tension in Kasoa: Assembly pulls down shops for 24-hour economy project

The Awutu Senya East Municipal Assembly has demolished several commercial shops and production structures at the Kasoa New Market, triggering widespread panic and anger among traders over the sudden destruction of their livelihoods.

The structural clearance, which took place on Saturday, 23 May 2026, saw heavy earthmoving equipment pull down vital informal factory installations, including prominent local corn and cassava processing mills.

According to municipal authorities, the intensive demolition exercise was executed to clear the prime land for the immediate commencement of a proposed state-of-the-art 24-hour Economy Market Centre.

The weekend operation has been met with fierce resistance from aggrieved shop owners, who claim the local government acted in bad faith.

The affected traders revealed that the demolition was aggressively carried out despite the existence of an active, legally binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between their leadership and the Municipal Assembly.

The traders lamented that the sudden displacement has thrown their businesses into chaos, with no clear administrative resolution or formal transition roadmap provided regarding their heavy capital investments and future commercial operations.

While the traders explicitly stated that they are not opposed to the government’s flagship developmental initiative to modernise local commerce, they expressed deep frustration over what they described as a complete lack of genuine institutional engagement and a disregard for their economic concerns.

Some traders who spoke to the media claimed they financed the construction of their shops through personal loans and have not been given any assurances regarding compensation or relocation.

“We took loans to put up these structures, but now they want to demolish them without compensation or even giving us an alternative place to trade,” one trader lamented.

Defending the legality and timing of the operation, the Municipal Director of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Mr Nash Nyandey, stated that the exercise was both lawful and highly crucial.

He explained that Saturday was intentionally selected for the operation under the strategic assumption that the specific market zone would be dormant, thereby minimising human casualties and vehicular traffic disruption.

Mr Nyandey maintained that the clearance was a necessary step toward actualising the government’s broader vision to establish functional 24-Hour Economy Market Centres across the country to stimulate around-the-clock economic productivity.

“We have engaged every stakeholder on several occasions. The municipality has noted that any trader who will be affected should come to the assembly for further compensation. So far it is the uncompleted structures we have demolished,” Mr Nyandey stated.

المصدر: MyJoyOnline (GH)