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The former Member of Parliament (MP)
for Ahafo Ano South, Mr. Balado Manu, has threatened to sue the Accra
Metropolitan Chief Executive, Dr. Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije, if he goes
ahead to construct a modern market at the burnt Kantamanto Market, as he
has been preaching.
According to the former MP, any move to turn
Kantamanto into modern market would mean that the idea to modernize the
railways sector had been shelved.
He contended that the rail
sector of the economy had been allowed to deteriorate to the level it
ought not to be, and instead of developing a proper strategic plan to
revamp it, Dr. Alfred Vanderpuije was rather trying to kill it with his
intended plans.
Speaking on Adom FM and in a follow up interview
with The Chronicle yesterday, Balado Manu noted that the land in
question belonged to the Ghana Railway Company (GRC), and that any
development on it should be in the interest of the company.
According
to him, when former President Kufuor’s administration introduced
shuttle train services between Accra and Tema, Kantamanto was and is
still being used as its turning point.
He was, therefore,
wondering why the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) would try to take
over the land to build a modern market, instead of using it for a
purpose that would benefit the beleaguered company.
The former
Ahafo Ano South MP quoted the Accra Mayor as having told the media that
the government of Brazil would support the modern market he intended to
build at the Kantamanto Market.
He noted that if these media
reports were actually true, then Dr. Vandderpuije must come out and tell
Ghanaians when he started the loan negotiations with the Brazilian
government, and whether the said loan had been approved by Parliament.
To
him, if the Accra Mayor wanted to construct a modern market for the
traders at the burnt Kantamanto market, he must look for land elsewhere,
and that he would not sit down idle for them to destroy the future of
the GRC.
“I have sent notice to him (Vanderpuije) through the
media, and I will continue to send signals to him that if he goes ahead
to develop Kantamanto into a modern market, I will sue him. There is too
much impunity in this country, and it must be stopped. I am prepared to
bell the cat,” he said.
The former MP, who is noted for speaking
his mind without fear or favour, argued that the future development of
our railway system would help to transport goods and services from the
hinterlands to our towns and cities, apart from making transportation
cheaper for the citizenry. Balado doffed his hat to the Minister of
Transport, Dzifa Attivor, for coming out strongly to support his
position that Kantamanto must not be turned into a modern market.
Dzifa
Attivor was recently quoted as saying that the government was ready to
develop the Kantamato railway land into a modern rail station.
“We
are now ready to develop the rail sector. The station will come with
some facilities e.g. shops, restaurants and restrooms. We want to take
this opportunity to appeal to the traders that they should not go back
there, because we are going to develop the rail lines. “It will be
converted into a big shopping mall, as is done everywhere,” she said.
Addressing
a news conference earlier, Dr. Vanderpuije advised traders at the
Kantamanto Market to move to the other satellite markets for his outfit
to construct a modern market in place of the burnt one, and that his
office would ensure the best is made out of the situation.
“The
best out of this situation can never be anything short of the best in
modernising the market. As AMA, we have plans to develop all of our
markets, and if this situation has happened, we will quickly start
rebuilding [a] proper market,” he said. |
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