Kumasi, Sept 15, GNA - Market Queens at the Kumasi Central Market, have denied that traders at the market were opposed to plans to re-construct it by the Metropolitan Assembly. Rather, they wanted an assurance that sitting occupants, after the re-construction, would not be thrown out and their spaces given to "the well-connected."

The market queens expressed these sentiments during an interaction with the Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Samuel Sarpong, at his office.

Nana Abena Tiaah, the spokesperson, said initial resistance by some of the traders was borne out of the fear that the assembly could be unfair to them.

She appealed to the assembly to make alternative arrangements for their temporary re-settlement as the project took off. Nana Tiaah said given the growing business activities in the metropolis, it was time the city authorities began considering re-locating the Kumasi Zoo and develop the site into a market. This, she said, would help to ease congestion at the Central Market, where facilities were over-stretched.

Mr Sarpong promised that the KMA would do everything to ensure that nobody occupying a store was displaced at the end of the project. The KMA would collate data on the affected traders by way of names, store numbers, ages, photographs and other particulars for easy identification.

About 40,000 traders would be allocated stores after the project and the new market would have facilities for a clinic, police station, places of convenience and car parks.

Mr Sarpong described the interaction as fruitful and gave the assurance that the assembly would not do anything that would cause their businesses to collapse.