AMA to monitor the sale of animals

The Metro Health Department of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly has formed a committee to ensure that the sale of animals such as goats and sheep is carried out at the appropriate designated locations in the markets.

Addressing a fund raising rally in aid of the rehabilitation of the Osu Night Market, Mr Solomon Ofei Darko, Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), emphasised that strayed animals around the markets in the city would not be tolerated.

He said: "The sale of meat and 'kebabs' should be sold within fly and dust proof structures, even at night", he said, and added that it was only meat that had been certified by the AMA accredited Health Inspectors that must be sold to the public.

Mr Ofei Darko said it was the duty of the Assembly to build and maintain markets, and added that Osu Klottey Sub Metro of the AMA would accordingly play its role in the rehabilitation exercise.

He announced that the drawings for the second phase of the market were ready, saying that the second phase would comprise more lockable stores and a shopping mall.

The MCE said the AMA was ensuring that there was no encroachment on the city's access roads, and was compelling traders to sell their wares within the 110 markets in the city.

Mr Ofei Darko called on everyone to contribute towards the rehabilitation project and cautioned that funds for the project must be used judiciously.

He advised the residents to fall on the recently inaugurated Emergency Anti-Flood Disaster Committee, in case of any emergency in rainy season.

The Committee is setting up camps in Police barracks to provide refuge for people who would be affected by floods during the impending rainy season.

It is also to monitor the rainfall pattern and give orders for evacuation of persons and property.

Built eight years ago, the Osu Night Market, though famed as one stop location for traditional cooked food for both the Osu community and tourists in the evening, it is housed in wooden structures, with a with a rather large portion not having roofs.

The traders in the market, therefore, teamed up with the Assemblyman, Mr Joseph Lamptey; the Member of Parliament (MP), Mr Adu Mante; AMA and the local Presbyterian Church to organise the fund raising, with a target of 100 million cedis to rehabilitate the market.

The initiative to rehabilitate the market was said to be the first of its kind by natives and residents of the Osu community.

Nii Kwabla Bonney IV, Osu Alata Mantse, lauded the initiative to rehabilitate the market and said more of such activities in communities in Accra would ease the congestion in the central business district of the city.

Nii Bonney announced that the traditional authority would approach companies and business within the Osu community to contribute toward development projects in the town to raise its status as the seat of government.

The Christianborg Castle, the seat of government, is in Osu.

The appeal for funds yielded five million cedis.