Traders At Mallam Market Appeal For Government's Support

Traders of Mallam Market have called on government to provide a modern and more conducive market for them to enable them operate in their full capacity. The Mallam market has no infrastructure that befit a modern market for the people. The market women sell under umbrellas which do not protect them enough from the weather conditions.

They are therefore at the mercy of the weather. Additionally, the safety of their wares cannot be guaranteed as they are exposed to the weather day and night. Traders are exposed to armed robbers who rob them of their money and other belongings. Traders have no proper place to keep their wares in the market, thus exposing them to thieves in the night.

There is also a problem with sitting positions for the traders, which on a daily basis compels the market leaders to rearrange them to ensure orderliness in the market.

The market got burnt about five years ago under very strange circumstances and since then the traders have been selling in temporary structures, some under umbrellas, thus exposing them to harsh weather conditions.

According to the Secretary of the Mallam Market Traders Association, Madam Oboshie Togbor, trading in the market is difficult in the face of all these challenges. She said ever since the market got burnt about give years ago, a number of politicians have come to promise them a new market stracture but none of these promises has been fulfilled. The Secretary told the reporter from Journalists For Community Development (JCD) that the market is the only source of livelihood for them but they have been neglected for far too long. She explained that if any market needs any support, it is the Mallam Market because, according to her the traders have acquired the

land, developed it with their own recourses untill the fire disaster that destroyed everything. She was however unhappy that the authorities have not considered their plight and have left them in their current state of distress.

The Secretary therefore asked government to provide them with a modern and more conducive market to attract many more people to the market. She was however grateful to government for clearing the refuse in the Mallam Market but was unhappy about the manner in which land guards have threatened their very existence in the market.

According to her, land guards from Sempe attempted to eject them from the market with the claim that the land belonged to them.

The secretary explained that in 1912 when the traders were ejected from their former place at Tema Station, their leader, late Madam Lydia Noye Comney acquired the Mallam Market land from the Gbawe family on a fifty year lease with their own contributions. She said they latter raised money to provide the infrastructural needs for the market. She added that when Madam Noye died, her daughter, Madam Elizabeth Lamle Lamptey popularly called Auntie Fio resorted to the the use of land guards to take over the land. According to her, the land was acquired by her late mum from the Sempe family. So in 2012, after the market got burnt, she brought land guards to eject the traders from the market. The case is currently pending in court.

In a telephone interview, the Secretary to Gbawe Family, Mr. Solomon Nii Afutu Quartey, confirmed that the said land belongs to Gbawe family and not Sempe as being purported by Madam Fio. He also shared the concerns of Madam Oboshie and asked the traders to remain calm.

But when the reporter contacted Madam Fio, who doubles as the Queen mother for the market, she denied claims that she is using land guards to take over the market land. She said the land does not belong to her so there is no way she will claim ownership of it.

She added that the land issue is a matter for the two families to deal and that she has no control over the land. She also commended government for taking steps to rid the market of filth. Concluding, Auntie Fio said the market looks cleaner now and asked the general public to patronize the market.