Traders at the Klo Agogo market in the Yilo Krobo Municipality in the Eastern Region have decided not to pay market toll to the assembly effective Tuesday, accusing the assembly of failure to improve upon the market as well as sanitation issues.
The traders, with the support of their chiefs, have also vowed to resist any forceful attempt by the assembly to collect revenue from the market women until the market was properly reconstructed.
This was announced on Tuesday when the chiefs, residents and the market women, including drivers, trooped to the market in a demonstration to register their displeasure about the deteriorated and unhygienic nature of the market.
The market shelter which was constructed in November 25, 1954, has since not experienced any renovation and most of the metal pliers have eroded.
The structure has since turned to a death trap with market women risking their lives under it every market day, though they pay levies to the assembly.
The market has also been engulfed with refuse and mud, turning the entire facility to an insanitary area, exposing the traders and buyers to a possible cholera outbreak.
Speaking to the Ghanaian Times, the chief of the area, Nene Odjeyem I, who was the lead protestor said he would not allow any trader to pay market levy to any revenue collector until their plight had been resolved.
According to him, he had on several occasions visited the office of the Municipal Chief Executive to have the market renovate, but had not yielded any good result.
“Whenever I go to his office to plead with him for the reconstruction of the market and the road, he always tells me to buy newspaper and read to find out whether he had not done anything about the market.
“I have been doing that for almost three months now, but have not seen any publication on our market and the road”, he said.
He indicated that, the Klo Agogo market is the largest that generates revenue for the assembly, but the 65-year-old market since its establishment had never been renovated.
Speaking on the road network, he said several communities around the Agogo township could no longer transport their farm produce to the market due to their deplorable nature.
A former assembly member, Harold Kofi Kumi, said they would continue to demonstrate on every market day “until the assembly comes to their aid.”
He said the community had not benefited from its share of the national cake, though the market is the largest that generates revenue for the Yilo Krobo Municipal Assembly.
FROM DAVID KODJO, KLO AGOGO
