Traders at Odorkor have cried foul and threatened to boycott the upcoming Parliamentary and Presidential elections in 2020 with a reason that, politicians have over the years failed to protect their subsistence businesses.

The threat is in reaction to a demolition exercise carried out by the Odorkor local assembly at dawn on Friday, August 2, 2019. The exercise has rendered hundreds of traders and residents homeless and without stalls to ply their trade.

Detailing the extent of loss to the media, traders with shops along the Odorkor Highway explained that, authorities served them a notice about two weeks ago with reason that some notorious persons have taken advantage of the slummy nature of their shops to indulge in criminal activities.

“They gave us two weeks to pack becauce some people in the vicinity where we sell take advantage and engage in robbery, they always have their way through our shops…we decided that when they come we’d explain to them that we’re not part of the notorious people. We even mobilized ourselves and went to the Assembly. They assured us of our stay that is why we didn’t move.” A victim explained.

Traders say they were ready to negotiate and lead authorities to the area which served as a safe haven for such notorious people.

Unfortunately, they didn’t get the opportunity to negotiate as the demolishing was carried out at dawn, hence the destruction of their stalls.

“I was sleeping around 3 am when I was called that a demolishing exercise had begun at my workplace. I rushed here and saw that they were half way through. Initially I thought it wouldn’t affect us but now look, everything we ever worked for has been ruined…we voted for NDC and Oko Vanderpuije did same, we decided to vote for NPP and now it’s even worse…” A victim lamented.

They are demanding compensation or they boycott the 2020 general elections and other subsequent elections.



“Let them understand that, we will not vote again, because we are tired of them. If Nana Addo fails to hear our plea, there’s no way we’re going to vote again,” another cried.

Some traders maintained that their stalls were authorized because have over the years been paying taxes relating to their stay there.

This demolition exercise is the second in a span of about four days.

On July 30 2019, residents at Mamobi experienced a similar fate as their make-shift structures were pulled down for failure to comply with a stipulated deadline by authorities.