Mr Peter Awoonor Williams (middle) addressing the press conference.Those with him are Mr Emmanuel Yemoh (left) and Mr Emmanuel Nii Okai.
Tenants at the premises of the Ghana Trade Fair Development Company (GTDC) have kicked against moves by authorities to evacuate them by December this year.
According to them authorities should find “better means of engaging them” in the redevelopment of the site instead of bullying them out “of a place where we have traded and stayed for the larger part of our life.”
Chairman of the Tenants Association, Mr. Peter Awunor Williams at a news conference in Accra yesterday contended that tenants had legal documents to back their stay at the site and could not be “unfairly ejected.”
According to him, the recent Chief Executive Officer, Mrs. Agnes Adu upon assumption of office had increased rent charges from GH?12,000 to GH? 25,000 quarterly a case which they were contending at the law courts.
Admitting that authorities of GTDC had officially written to them over the intended renovation of the area and the subsequent eviction, Mr. Williams believed a better engagement between both sides to find alternative temporary accommodation would have been appropriate instead a permanent ejection.
“We do not have a problem with the re-development of the Trade Fair because it is long overdue, but there must be better outlined strategies from the management in handling this matter.
Most of us have bought the lands, some have developed them while others are still developing them so to eject us without any compensation or alternative accommodations cannot be lawful or acceptable,” he stressed.
The Ghana Trade Fair Company in August served eviction notices to tenants on its premises to leave by December to make way for the reconstruction of the trade fair site.
The reconstruction would commence in the first quarter of 2019 with the first phase which includes amusement parks, convention centres among others.
So far 30 companies have expressed interest in the construction but CEO of Trade Fair Dr. Agnes Adu says only four look promising.
“The procurement process has begun for these companies before then we investigated the companies to ascertain they can start and complete the projects for which they have expressed interest. Out of the 30 companies, four look promising,” she disclosed to journalists.
By Abigail Annoh and David Takyi
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