The Assembly Member for Ebowu Electoral Area, Mr. Barnabas Ewereko and four others are in police grips for allegedly demolishing market structures at Asasetre in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region.
They are in police custody at Axim in the Nzema East District awaiting prosecution.
The District Chief Executive for Ellembelle, Mr. Daniel Kamatu Eshun, confirmed the arrest to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview on Monday.
He said the assembly member had threatened several times on the floor of the House that no staff of the Assembly should set foot at the market to collect tolls from the traders because the construction of the market started during the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Administration and that the current Assembly had failed to complete it.
The DCE admitted that although the market started during the NPP Administration, it was not completed until the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government came into power in 2008.
He said the Assembly even paid GHc15, 000 to the contractor since the then government failed to pay him and also erected four additional sheds, built toilet facilities and culverts to improve drainage at the place.
Mr. Eshun said the current Assembly Member, Ewereko and one John Nwolley, a former assemblyman in the area, had erected make-shift structures near the main road and collected market tolls from the traders.
Mr. Eshun said since the sitting of the structures near the road posed danger to the traders and patrons, the Assembly directed the traders to move to the uncompleted market site since the Assembly had put certain amenities there while plans were underway to complete it with the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) and the Internally Generated Fund (IGF).
He added that the Assembly had even registered about 450 traders and they had erected their own temporary structures there.
However, the DCE said Ewereko mobilized some youth believed to be members of the NPP last Saturday, and demolished the structures put up by the traders at the market site.
The DCE said he informed the Nkroful police and the perpetrators were arrested and subsequently sent to the Axim Police Station for prosecution.
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