MCE ‘fights’ assembly members over allocation of Kotokuraba market

Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Cape Coast, Ernest Arthur has rejected claims by some members of the assembly that Kotokuraba market stalls are being allocated to supporters of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the area.
The group, Concerned Assembly Members of Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly, at a press conference on Friday 7 July, 2017 accused Central Regional Minister Kwamena Duncan and Cape Coast MCE Ernest Arthur of mischievously allocating the market to sympathizers of the NPP, neglecting the original occupants.
In 2016, some aggrieved market women were granted a court injunction on the allocation, citing some irregularities in the allocation processes, after the then President John Dramani Mahama had inaugurated the market.
The defendants then were the immediate past Regional Minister and the Cape Coast Metropolitan Chief Executive.
Upon the exit of the NDC, the new Regional Minister and the current Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly (CCMA) Chief Executive, serving as defendants, asked the cart for an out-of-court settlement, which the court granted.
A new committee was constituted by the Assembly to do the allocations using the Assembly’s prepared list of allotees.
It is the current list that has generated the controversy, with various stakeholders threatening diverse actions to ensure that fairness in the allocation is done.
But speaking to Adom News, the MCE denied the allegations adding that every original occupant has a stall.
“The allegation is not true, every original occupant has a stall. As far as the assembly’s books are concerned, no original occupant has been left out. We have categories of occupants, we have the original occupants, we have the inside wall stalls, and we have the open market stalls and we have inside table stalls.
He continued that “These are the categories. And the court instructed that the original occupants should be the first people to get stalls. So every original occupant is taken care of” he said.