Tamale Metropolitan Assembly begins demolition exercise

Tamale, April 3, GNA - The Tamale Metropolitan Assembly on Friday undertook a dawn swoop to demolish all unauthorized structures aimed at decongesting the metropolis.

The Assembly special task force aided by armed police force and a representation from the traditional authorities took part in the exercise, which began at 0500HRS.

They demolished unauthorized stalls and kiosks in the central business centre and towed some structures to the premises of the TMA offices for their owners to pay a penalty before retrieving them. Some owners of the structures who were present as at the time of the exercise removed them before the police and the TMA task force got there.

Others who could not get to the scene early to save their property were found gathering pieces of wood apparently to resettle somewhere else. In an interview with the GNA during the exercise, Mr Adam Mohammed Baba the Metro Coordinating Director said the exercise would continue until the entire business centre of Tamale was cleared of illegal structures. He observed that the early morning exercise obstructed the quick flow of traffic and that a decision would be taken to shift the exercise to 21hours GMT to avoid traffic congestion.

Mr Baba said plans were far advanced to develop an area near the main branch of the Ghana Commercial Bank into a car park, which would commerce soon after the exercise.

He pointed out that the metropolis was being chocked daily with the illegal structures and that the Assembly would sustain the exercise to decongest and beautify the city.

Meanwhile the Assembly has asked all traders who have been affected by the exercise to relocate to Kalpohin, a suburb of Tamale and other places.

The Assembly had been making announcements for the past six months asking people who had erected illegal structures to get them removed.