AMA now prosecutes all week

To complement the AMA's renewed decongestion exercise, prosecution of recalcitrant traders who breach the law in the Accra Metropolis will now take place on all working days, as against the previous ar¬rangement when such cases were heard only on Fridays.

Ali Baba Abature, Director of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly's Public Affairs, disclosed this to the Times on Thursday.

He said the Judicial Service has designated one special court at the Accra Community Centre to ensure faster prosecution of traders who breach the law in the course of the assembly's exercise to de¬congest the streets of hawkers and unauthorised structures.

He said that previously, when offenders were arrested, it took them about a week in some cases before they were tried since the court was weekly.

He explained that previously, "effectiveness of the arrest was not felt as when they are bailed, they go back to the street to sell".

The assembly requested for two courts and the Judicial Service is considering the designation of one more court, he said.

Another court near Kaneshie would be helpful as those arrested in that area would be sent there to make prosecution faster, he said.