Dozens of provision shops and capenter's workshops at Asuoyeboa in the Kumasi metropolis were on Thursday pulled down amid scenes of uncontrolled anger and outpouring of emotion.
It is unclear, who authorized the demolition of the structures - built on the frontage of the Asuoyeboa SSNIT Flats, a stretch of land along the Kumasi-Sunyani highway and claimed by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).
SSNIT has flatly denied any involvement in the exercise carried out under tight security protection by armed soldiers and police officers.
Mr. Bright Onumah, the Ashanti Regional Public Relations Officer of the Trust, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that it had “no hand in it”.
He rather directed reporters of the wire service to the Lands Commission, where everybody was tight-lipped.
A bulldozer started tearing down the shops at about 0800 hours giving the shop owners little or no time to salvage their goods.
One of the victims, who gave her name only as Maa Jane told the GNA that she lost everything and accused whoever ordered the destruction of structures of insensitivity.
Asked how they came to occupy the land, she said, the place was allocated to them by a former assembly member.
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