By Ghana News 
A routine city cleanup exercise in the Ashanti Region turned into a chaotic battleground on Wednesday, July 8, 2026. Three officers from the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) suffered serious injuries after angry residents violently resisted a demolition exercise behind the COCOBOD building near the Asafo Overpass in Adum.
The fierce clash highlights the long-standing tension between city authorities trying to prevent seasonal flooding and local settlers defending their homes. The confrontation resulted in heavy property damage, leaving several state vehicles wrecked and exposing deep communication gaps between the assembly and Kumasi residents.
The violence erupted early in the morning when a heavily armed KMA taskforce, supported by local city guards, entered the area to pull down structures built illegally along major waterways. The targeted residents quickly mobilized to defend their settlement, throwing stones and weapons at the clearing crew.
The local resistance successfully damaged critical state engineering equipment and operational trucks before security reinforcement arrived. Kumasi Mayor Richard Ofori Agyemang Boadi confirmed to journalists that the assembly lost a functional pickup truck and an excavator to vandalism, but vowed that the destruction would not stop the city’s safety plans.
The city administration clarified that the sudden removal of the makeshift wooden structures is a vital necessity to protect the wider Kumasi metropolis from severe flooding. The Mayor explained that contractors urgently need full access to the area to desilt choked drains before the peak of the rainy season arrives.
City authorities emphasize that allowing illegal buildings to block sovereign waterways directly endangers thousands of local businesses and shoppers within the central business district. The injured KMA taskforce members are currently receiving formal medical treatment at the hospital after police officers documented the assault files for future prosecution.
The affected residents told a completely different story, accusing the local assembly of executing the harsh eviction without giving them any prior notice. Several displaced families stood in the debris weeping, wondering where they would sleep tonight since all their personal belongings were destroyed by the bulldozers.
One frustrated trader argued that they did not clear the land by force, but actually paid valid cash to local agents before setting up their homes in an area that used to be a hideout for thieves. This conflicting narrative underscores a growing national challenge where innocent citizens buy land from unauthorized sources, only to face the full wrath of national environmental bylaws later.
Also Read: Floods: Gov’t Announces Demolition of Buildings on Six Critical Accra Wetlands
