By Nicholas Osei-Wusu
The Asokore Mampong Municipal Assembly in the Ashanti region demolishes properties, including a branch of the Sekyedumase Community Bank, to make way for the construction of the Municipality’s version of the government’s 24-Hour Market at Aboabo.
According to the Bank, the Assembly did not allow the bank to salvage anything from its premises. The demolition was undertaken days after the Assembly had blocked the entry point of the agency with laterite. Management of the Bank complains of losing millions of Ghana Cedis and in assets as a consequence.
The Bank however has a backup to ensure business continuity, to protect its database, especially the data of customers and Inventory of all of its assets at the Branch. However, the Bank’s inability to take any of its assets has resulted in a loss of millions of Cedis in cash and destroyed assets.
“For customer data, it’s not lost but physical assets of the bank are lost, running into millions of Ghana Cedis. We’re going through the Inventory of the Bank. We’ll cost all the items that have been lost to the demolition. In the meantime, because it happened without expectation, we’re managing the situation and serving the customers within the Aboabo community”, Mr Kwabena Afriyie CEO of the Bank noted.
The 24-Hour Markets are among the government’s priority projects, and the Assemblies have the responsibility to decide appropriate locations for construction to commence within a given timeline. The Asokore Mampong Municipal Assembly settled on a strategic location at Aboabo. However, the place happens to be at an already densely populated part of the community, occupied by private homes, artisans, petty traders and a branch of the Sekyedumase Community Bank.
The Bank claims that when the Assembly informed it of the choice of the vicinity for the 24-Hour Market, management suggested its incorporation into the project design or give management enough time to look for an alternative, in consultation with the Bank of Ghana and the ARB Apex Bank.
According to the Legal Counsel for the Bank, Dr. Dickson Osei Assibey, the Bank was compelled by the unilateral action of the Assembly to take a legal action to stop the Assembly from taking any further action but it went against an Interlocutory Injunction to raze down the agency last Monday. Dr. Assibey, explained that the Court scheduled October this year to hear the Injunction Application in October after the legal vacation.
“Even if you want them to move away, it’s a matter of talking with each other, which they started. But the position of the bank was to integrate our building into the 24-Hr economy Market, which to me is possible. But if you think that’s not feasible, then give us time because we need to inform the ARB Apex Bank, and the Bank of Ghana, as well as other stakeholders, before we can move out. They need a place we can go, they have to approve of it first before we can go there. So all these were before the Municipal Assembly, but we don’t know why they decided to take this action”, the Lawyer lamented.
When reached for Asokore Municipal Assembly’s side of the story, the Municipal Chief Executive, Mr. Ben Abdullah, declined to speak on the matter, explaining that, the Assembly will react very soon.
Meanwhile, some members of the Aboabo community, including traders who were affected by the demolition told GBC that, all the occupiers of the project site were originally given a deadline to voluntarily relocate. When they missed that deadline the Assembly listened to their plea, and gave them extensions twice, before the eventual demolition exercise.
