AMA Warns Politicians, Media

... against emboldening hawkers to stay on the streets

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has told some politicians and media practitioners in the country to desist from destructing its mission of restoring sanity in the metropolis and keeping the city clean.

The AMA, which has come under strong criticism by some individuals and sections of the media lately, said it suspected strongly that there were some faceless politicians backed by their media allies that might be some of the reasons why the hawkers had chosen to defy the AMA order not to sell on the streets.

“If people hide behind some media houses and put impediment on the way of institution we want to assure them, they will fail. We don’t run a nation like that.” The AMA said.

The AMA Public Relations Officer, Numoo Blafo II, gave this warning when he spoke to the Crystal Clear Lens in an interview recently. The Chronicle newspaper carried a banner headline story on July 18, 2011, involving altercation between some hawkers and officials of the AMA in the traffic near the Emmanuel Eye Clinic near at East Legon in Accra.

According to the paper, one of the hawkers, Georgina Owusu, on Thursday June 23, was beating almost to death by a retired army officer who is trainee of the AMA task force for selling cold water (ice water).

The paper quoted her saying, “I was appalled by what was happening. I murmured something to myself. I said the NDC government has not given us jobs to do, and yet they are denying us our little means of livelihood. They should know that ordinary people like us voted to put them in power. We are the people who would vote again.”

According to the paper, Georgina was arrested together with a number of boys and arraigned before the AMA Traffic and Sanitation Court, near the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum. But Numoo Blofo II refuted the publication vehemently, saying it was the lady who held the dress of the officer and torn it when she was being arrested. The PRO described the publication as regrettable because these publications turned out to embolden the hawkers to defy the AMA order and turned confrontational whenever the taskforce was around.

Mr. Blofo II questioned the rational behind publication in the paper. He said it was obvious that the paper did not find out causes of arrest by the officials, hence the negative publication.

He pointed out that there were people in the City, whose only prayer was to see AMA failed so that they would turn sixty degrees to ridicule the Assembly and the Mayor. There would be no turning back on the decongestion exercise ongoing not even in an election year, he assured residents of Accra and they should not entertain any fears.

“If by next year which is an election year we are not able to remove the hawkers from the streets the same people will say we have failed. If allowing people to sell on the streets will give votes to political party then the past government would not have been voted out of power.

In the past government, anytime they embark on activity of clearing the streets, the next day we get orders to bring them back on the streets. I remember vividly when we cleared the whole of Tema Station off hawkers, the next day we were made to invite the media to tell the whole world that we were wrong and that the hawkers can come back.” Earlier, the paper published in their editorial that 20 girls were rounded up on streets of Accra and jailed three years each for selling cold water. It later turned out that it was only one girl.