Abossey Okai spare parts dealers reject Afienya relocation

Some spare parts dealers at Abossey Okai say they will not relocate to Afienya in line with plans by the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council.

Describing themselves as National Concern Spare Parts Dealers Association, they argue that Afienya will not be in their interest and have threatened to embark on a street protest if the decision was not rescinded.

“We vehemently oppose the proposed relocation, we consider the decision as very unfortunate because it will not help we the spare parts dealers at Abossey Okai, relocating to a different place where we believe our business will not thrive,” Takyi Addo said.

At a press conference in Accra Tuesday [May 10, 2022], and speaking on behalf of their members, Takyi Addo said it was only some members who were spearheading the move but not all spare parts dealers in Abossey Okai are in favour of the move to Afienya.

RCC’s plan

The Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) has planned to relocate all spare parts dealers from Abossey Okai in Accra to Afienya.

According to the RCC it is part of the campaign to “Make Accra work.”

The government has identified a land in Afienya and was working towards allocating it to the spare parts dealers.

The land, according to the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey is owned by the government and that letters have already been sent to the Lands Commission under the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources for the allocation.

Majority decision

Meanwhile, a co-chairman of the Abossey Okai Spare Parts Dealers Association, Clement Boateng has said majority of their members have agreed to relocate to Afienya.

In terms of numbers, he told Graphic Online’s Juliet Akyaa Safo that about 90 per cent of them have agreed to move.

He said it was when some land and shop owners in the area heard about it that they approached the association and said they were not in favour of the move since it was going to affect their investments at Abossey Okai.

“We had a series of meetings with them, trying as much as possible to reach a compromise because we made them to understand that it is an optional something and that it was not like they are going to be forcibly ejected from here [Abossey Okai] and so they should be rest assured. So it has been back and forth and they seem not to understand because they want to protect the so-called investments that they say they have made here [Abossey Okai]. But you cannot just protect your investment, just about 20 people who say they have investments here, cannot protect their investments at the expense of about 5000 shops here, those who have acquired shops here are about 5000,” he added.

Mr Boateng explained that those opposing the intended relocation where some shop owners and few Spare Parts dealers.

“A lot of people are not in support of what the group is doing and we have told them that the relocation is optional. This means that when the project at Afienya is done, not everybody will be moved. When we tested the waters and started registering people over 2500 dealers have registered to be relocated,” he said.

He said in October last year some shop owners approached the association and asked them to stop registering the dealers because some people were no more patronising their shop to which they heeded to.