Officials of the National Security Sunday night stormed the premises of factories owned by former journalist Raymond Archer at the Trade Fair Centre in Accra and demolished it. Several properties of Universal Labels & Packaging Co. Ltd (Unipak) owned by Raymond Archer worth over ten (10) million dollars were destroyed by the state security agency.
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According to the distraught Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of unipak, his hard work spanning ten (10) years was just razed to the ground within moments.
Speaking on Happy98.9FM’s ‘Epa Hoa Daben’ Raymond revealed that, “I’ve lost a factory built over 10years worth 10million dollars. The bank loans used to set up the factory, new machines recently acquired and work of 120 individuals and 25 expatriates have all been lost. Looking at the demolition, I was very worried and couldn’t sleep.”
On his authority he didn’t even know about the demolition until his security at the factory called to inform him about the demolition. “Around 10pm my security called to inform me the police had guns and bulldozers and were going to raze down the factory,” he stated.
He revealed that prior to the demolition tenants at the trade fair had been harassed for a while. “Two months ago, they used bulldozers to destroy access roads to my factory which prevented us from transporting raw materials for production to my facility.” He furthered that on another occasion, chains were used to lock buildings on the trade fair grounds and owners were forced to pay up money amounting to over GH₵1million before their buildings were reopened.
When asked by host Kwame Afrifa is he occupied the grounds illegally, Raymond answered in the negative. He replied, “You can’t just build at the trade fair. I wrote to the last CEO who told me where to site the building and I have paid rent every quarter for 10years. I pay grounds rent of GH₵2,200 every month.”
The Ghana Trade Fair Company Limited (GTFC) took tenants and owners of factories situated at the Trade Fair by surprise when it illegally embarked on a demolition exercise backed by “orders from above” to destroy dozens of factories which are worth millions of dollars.
The exercise which began around 10pm and ended after 12:00am on Monday saw two bulldozers and a team of armed police officers overseeing the destruction of structures and heavy industrial equipment.
By: Joel Sanco