AMA Strikes Hawkers

Packed wares of the ejected traders

Petty traders in the Central Business District (CBD) of Accra could not help themselves yesterday but rain insults on government for allowing a taskforce led by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to demolish all wooden structures with which they sold their wares.

The exercise was said to have started on Sunday evening through to the early hours of Monday.

The action, people say, was as a result of the traders' stubbornness to vacate the pavements. They were given vacation notice some weeks ago.

Security personnel drawn from the Ghana National Fire Service, Police and the AMA taskforce were sighted at various locations, ensuring that no hawker flouted any order.

When DAILY GUIDE hit town yesterday afternoon, it observed that though most of the pavements at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle had been cleared of hawkers, others stayed put.

The pavement in front of the School of Law at Makola, which hosted a wide number of hawkers, had also been sanitised, bringing out the real beauty of the area.  

Parts of the capital city have now taken a new shape as pedestrians walk swiftly to their various destinations without the usual hassle.

Some of the traders told DAILY GUIDE that government had really shown that it is insensitive to the plight of the ordinary man who voted it into power.

Venting his anger, a footwear trader who gave his name as Charles Baah said that when the past government wanted them off the streets, it gave them ample time, say five years to prepare but shockingly, this current government took just close to six months to deny them of their daily bread.

Another trader, Kwame Kyere also noted that it was about time government got a permanent place for them else they would return to the streets again.

This situation, for them, is tantamount to emptying their pockets instead of government “putting more money in our pockets” as it promised.  

Interestingly, while some were wailing for their loss, others were jubilant, saying it was wrong for their colleagues to occupy the pavements with those structures.

According to Richard Nortey, Station Officer at Makola, his outfit was called in yesterday to help maintain sanity in the area.

He said that the exercise was aimed at moving all hawkers away from the streets and would continue until not a single trader was found on the street.

Some of the hawkers complained of not being given adequate information to prepare themselves.

One of the affected hawkers said before last year's elections, Vice President John Mahama had promised that the NDC government would give a human face to such exercises.

In a separate development, the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) took delivery of assorted relief items from one Kwasi Heiser, a Ghanaian based in Germany, for onward delivery to flood victims in the country.  

The items included computers, used clothing, stationery, footballs among others.

 
By Nathaniel Y.Yankson