Return of traders not connected with bye-election

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.