The attempt by the Accra Metropolitan Authority (AMA) to eject traders from the Novotel Trading Park has plunged the ownership of the park into further controversy, with two other organisations claiming ownership of the land. The AMA’s ultimatum to the traders expires tomorrow but, according to the traders, who have resisted the move, authorities of the Kinbu School and representatives of a company, Dream Reality Limited, which claims to have acquired the property from the Accra City Management Company (ACMC), have entered the fray to challenge the AMA. Representatives of the traders who came to the Daily Graphic offices yesterday said they were every now and then being bombarded with contradictory claims to the land and restated their desire to march naked to the Castle and ask President Mills to intervene and ascertain the actual status of the 4.5-acre land. The Spokesperson of the traders, Madam Rita Adzei, said they had decided to take their case to the Castle because the growing uncertainty appeared to have placed a wedge between the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Armah Ashitey, and the AMA Chief Executive, Mr Alfred Vanderpuije. The impasse heightened when a section of the Greater Accra Market Women’s Association accused the regional minister of verbally asking a break-away faction of the traders to stay at the park and transact their business, a charge the minister denied. Nii Ashitey also declined to comment on the ownership of the land, beyond stating that the issue was being handled by a sub-committee of the Regional Security Council. For his part, Mr Vanderpuije affirmed to the Daily Graphic that the issue involved the development of Accra, “and that is the responsibility of the AMA”. Daily Graphic checks at the Lands Commission confirmed that the land, which was acquired by the colonial government under a certificate of title dated March 16, 1894, was released to the ACMC by a lease dated February 22, 2001. Subsequently, the company assigned a significant portion of the land to Dream Reality Company Limited on July 23, 2008. In spite of those transactions, two giant inscriptions — “Property Of Kinbu Secondary Technical, School Keep Off” and “School Property Keep Off” — have been prominently placed on the land. Madam Adzei said the different claimants to the land had been giving them (the traders) different dates to quit anytime each heard that the other had given an ultimatum. Meanwhile, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the ACMC and the AMA and dated February 19, 2008 stipulated that the Novotel Park parcel of land had been leased to the ACMC for 50 years, with effect from January 1, 2001, for the development of a 15-storey structure. Under the terms of the MoU, which was endorsed by the former Mayor of Accra, Mr Stanley Nii Adjiri-Blankson, and the Chairman of the ACMC, Mr Ekow Awoonor, the company shall, in collaboration with and approved by the AMA, design and build, at the company’s own cost, a four-storey office complex for use as official AMA City Hall. The AMA shall be allocated two floors of parking in the development, from which it shall collect revenue. Furthermore, all finances required for the development of the proposed AMA City Hall Complex and the construction of what would now become the Makola No 1 Market shall be provided for by the company. As the issue rages on, an increasing number of squatters and mounting garbage have taken over the Pedestrian Shopping Mall at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle which is to provide an alternative post for the traders. The mall was conceived of and constructed by the AMA as a contemporary trading centre for shoppers in Accra and to help relocate more than 2,000 traders from the heart of the capital. But the project, which was completed in 2006, has lately slummed into limbo, providing a den for criminals and ruffians and a safe place for garbage, rodents and reptiles, including snakes, because, according to the traders who are to relocate there, Accra’s two strong men, the mayor and the regional minister, are engaged in a clash of egos. “Wee peddlers and smokers now sleep there at night and last week two young men were bitten by snakes,” a resident of Odawna told the Daily Graphic. She said law-abiding people in the neighbourhood feared the abandoned stalls would provide another hide-out for drug dealers and robbers to terrorise the people of Adabraka and Kokomlemle. Some of the traders who complied with the AMA’s order to move into the Pedestrian Shopping Mall have been trickling back to the more animated Novotel Park. Source: Daily Graphic