Adjen Kotoku onion sellers send SOS to govt [Photos]

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Onion sellers, who were moved from Agbogbloshie to Adjen Kotoku, are calling on the government to halt encroachment on the land allocated for them.

This they believe will save the country from spending millions of cedis relocating the onion sellers to another place in the near future.


The youth leader of the market, Rashid thinks the earlier the government intervenes, the better for the future of the trading centre.


According to him, when one pictures the market five years or more from now, the expansion that will be needed may not happen due to the encroached land and it may lead to another relocation.


After several failures by successive Accra mayors and governments to relocate onion sellers mainly at the Agbogbloshie market as a way of decongestion to other designated locations, current Greater Accra Minister Henry Quartey chalked that success.


The relocation was met with stiff resistance, compelling Mr Quartey to retreat and engage stakeholders.


In the ensuing days towards the deadline for eviction, Mr Quartey met with Members of Parliament, leadership of the traders, Chief Imam, other chiefs and opinion leaders.


Finally, the thousands of squatters at Agbogbloshie were moved to their new designated locations, Adjen Kotoku in the Ga West municipality and Gomoa Domenase in the Central Region.


Interestingly, Agbogbloshie, a former wetland, which later became home to one of the world’s largest electronic waste dumps has been salvaged and now looks like virgin land.


This vast land here at the heart of Ghana’s capital city has now been earmarked for various government projects – including the much-touted health project Agenda 111.


It’s been about a year after the historic Agbogbloshie evacuation and Adom News embarked on a mission to check on how the evacuees are faring at Adjen Kotoku and Domenase.


Adom News had a closer view of the over five thousand onion sellers and their new environment, as well as business conditions.

One of the leaders of the onion sellers association told the news team that business is now picking up after their relocation from Agbogbloshie.


The market looks incomplete as many traders have no sheds, a situation they described as a failure on the part of the architect of the relocation; the Greater Accra Regional Minister.

When it comes to hygiene, the situation is not encouraging as mobile toilets and other refuse containers are overflowing and uncollected by the assembly.

They also bemoaned the impact of the deplorable road leading to the market on their vehicles.