The Municipal Chief Executive for Bolgatanga, Rex Asanga has expressed grave concern about the depth of misinformation among the people in the Bolgatanga area about some of the developmental projects and exercises undertaken by the Assembly. Mr. Asanga explained that while the Assembly’s moves to relocate the butchers and grain traders were purely to foster development in the area, some of the feedback he got from the people was worrying.
Speaking on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East, the MCE said while attempting to relocate the grain trader to the old market also known as the ‘Techiman Market’, he received a call from someone in his hometown, Sumbrungu. Mr. Asanga said while speaking to this person, she told him that the had heard that the MCE intended to use teargas and very brutal force to relocate the traders, a statement that took him aback.
The MCE continued to say that while some people who reached out to him has been poorly informed about his thoughts to develop the area, others who reached out to him wanted him to abandon his vision for the Assembly.
“You get people calling you all over, telling you all sorts of stories and asking you to slow down saying you are not the only MCE who has come and you should not be the one to the one to do all the unpopular things. Other MCEs came and left it as it is, why don’t you do things like that. It is very difficult”.
“One woman called me. She said she was from Sumbrungu and that she knew me very well. She said what I was doing to the market women was not fine so I should just stop it. She said trying to move the women was not good. Finally, she said she had even heard that I was trying to organise teargas to go into the market and spray these women. You would not believe some of the funny stories that I have heard,” he said.
The MCE said to avoid misinformation and the spread of untruths, he is always open to explaining the development agenda to those who reach out to him.
Meanwhile, some grain traders who defied the Bolgtanga Municipal Assembly’s order and returned to the new market after they had been fully relocated to the old market, also known as the Techiman Market, have been arraigned before court. This was after a physical altercation with a security team sought to ensure they complied with the Assembly’s directive.
Mr. Asanga also commended media practitioners and the various media outlets for their unflinching support in his attempts to relocate grain traders from the new market to the old market as well as the resituate the slaughtering of ruminants to the Yorogo facility.
“It is not every day you will get every media house or journalist to just be supporting a course taken by a politician. But in these two activities, I got the media completely in support of it. They really went out of the way to give us support and I think that is what kept us on. We were encouraged by the support. It appears that the population was also waiting for somebody to take those bold decisions,” he said.
A1radioonline.com|101.1 MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith |Bolgatanga|Ghana
