Traders at the Kejetia bus terminal in Kumasi have filed contempt charges against the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) and its Chief Executive, Mr Kojo Bonsu at the Kumasi High.
According to a notice of motion filed by the lawyers of the traders and supported by Order 50 of CI 47, they are praying the court to commit the KMA and its Chief Executive for contempt of court by bringing the administration of justice into irreparable disrepute. It will be moved on July 8, 2015.
It said the two, deliberately disregarded and treated with impunity the pendency of an application for injunction before the High Court, Kumasi against them filed and served on them on June 25, 2015.
It said the two did so by barricading the entrance to the Kejetia bus terminal and also preventing the plaintiff from having access into their places of trade.
The ex parte motion filed on June 29, 2015 by the counsel for the traders, Mr Kwasi Afrifa, a lawyer with O and A Legal Consult, is asking the court to order KMA and its Chief Executive to stop their contemptuous move which included barricading the terminal and bear the cost of the instant contumacious behaviour and in terms of the accompanying affidavit.
The plaintiffs are the 402 members of the Kejetia Traders Association and 2,283-member Kejetia Petty Traders Association.
In an affidavit in support, the traders stated that the behaviour of Mr Bonsu and the KMA is causing loss of business with the attendant deprivation of their only source of income and also some of their stocks are perishable likely to go bad if the present unsavoury situation persists.
It said In the case of the Second Plaintiff most of their wares were stolen in course of the barricade mounted as they do not keep them in store rooms under lock and key.
“That as indicated in our application for injunction the defendants had already intimated that nothing will stop them from their illegal behaviour and that no court can halt their attempts to forcibly remove us by recourse to brute force”, it added.
The traders claimed that the conduct of the KMA and its boss has brought the administration of justice into disrepute and ridicule and should not be countenanced all “and is deserving of the severest punishment”.
Last week the Petty traders filed a motion to place an injunction on the KMA from going ahead with the reconstruction of the Kejetia bus terminal.
The traders asked the Kumasi High Court to declare that the deliberate extension of the Kumasi Central Market project to the Kejetia bus terminal was wrong, illegal and calculated attempt to overreach the traders who have constructed permanent structures with the consent of the KMA who collect monthly shop fees and daily tolls from the traders by reason of their occupation of the stalls.
In a writ dated June 25, 2015 filed by Mr Kwasi Afrifa, a lawyer with O and A Legal Consult on behalf of the traders who are the 402 members of the Kejetia Traders Association and 2,283-member Kejetia Petty Traders Association. The motion will be heard on July 10, 2015.
In a statement of claim the petty traders urged the court to declare that the non-inclusion of the Kejetia Bus Terminal in the proposed rehabilitation project estimate sent to Cabinet was indicative that the Kejetia Bus Terminal was not part of the overall project.
It said any purported inclusion of the Kejetia Bus Terminal was “fraudulent and calculated to infringe the proprietary rights of the plaintiffs”.
