Accra, Sept 15, GNA – The Accra Metropolitan Authority (AMA) on Wednesday dismissed speculations that the by-election held in the Odododiodioo Constituency on August 30 had something to do with the return of traders and hawkers to the streets.
Mr Noel Ackton-Tetteh, the Public Relations Officer of AMA, told the GNA in an interview that it was wrong for some sections of the public to give a political dimension to the situation. He said the traders’ presence on the streets and pavements was illegal and attributed the phenomenon to the hard socio-economic problems facing them.
A visit by the GNA to the central business district of Accra showed that the traders had returned in their numbers and re-occupied pavements and walkways and openly displayed their wares. Mr Ackton-Tetteh said the traders had admitted that the AMA had not given them the go ahead to be on the streets and that AMA would not politicise such a situation.
On the issue of getting them a place, he said AMA was under no obligation to provide them with a place to sell and that it had only decided to give the exercise a human face by its decision to relocate the traders.
The traders, Mr Ackton-Tetteh said, had taken undue advantage of the unavailability of a permanent place promised them and that the hundred days declaration made by the AMA to clean up the city was only to sensitise the public to keep their surroundings clean.
Source: GhanaWeb
