Over one-hundred traders in the Ho Municipality have appealed to the Special Prosecutor (SP) to investigate circumstances making it impossible for the Ho Municipal Assembly to allow them to use market stores that they have paid various sums of money for, since 2016.
According to the traders, in 2016, under the Mahama administration, they paid various sums of money, according to the size of store to the Assembly for allocation of new market stores before the current administration took over power.
For unknown reasons, they claim the Ho Municipal assembly is refusing to allocate the stores to them.
The traders explained that the new administration of the assembly called a meeting some time ago and demanded that all those who paid for the stores should report with receipts for the appropriate action to be taken.
Speaking in an interview with The Chronicle in Ho, the Spokesperson for the Traders, Mr Sitsofe Kofi Norgbey said the traders complied with the directive and attended a meeting, where the receipts covering various amounts of money were shown to the officials.
Mr Norgbey, however, said the Assembly failed to hand over the store keys to them, after verification that established that they duly paid for the stores. The development, he noted, has affected most of the traders.
As they were pondering over the delay in handing over the keys to them, he said the same Ho Assembly asked all those who paid for the stores during the NDC era and are ready for a refund to come to the assembly to collect their money.
This request, he indicated, were ignored as they were only interested in handing over the keys for them to occupy the stores.
He said the group had earlier decided to drag the Assembly to court for the law court to compel it to allocate the shops to them, but changed their decision to rather involve the Spokesperson to help them find out what was preventing the Assembly from allocating the stores
The Spokesperson said the refusal by the Assembly not to allocate the new stores to them led to hardship among the traders since 2016 and stressed that the decision taken by the assembly not to give them the stores had tarnished the image of the ruling government.
When contacted, the Ho Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Divine K. Bosson, admitted that some traders paid for stores during the NDC era at the time the stores were not completed. According to him, the money these traders paid at the time is not commensurate with the money expended on the stores before its completion by the current administration.
The Assembly has, therefore, decided to review the allocation process.
Mr Bosson explained that the Assembly did not refuse to allocate the stores to the affected traders and disclosed that there were 110 stores earmarked for allocation during NDC time, but at the time construction had not been completed.
