Ho Municipal Assembly to prosecute traffic-blocking traders

Ho, Aug. 16, GNA-The Ho Municipal Assembly is to prosecute traders in the Ho Central Market who are obstructing human and vehicular traffic in the Market with their trading activities. Mr Cephas Bodza, Ho Municipal Assembly Market Supervisor who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Wednesday said the action was to decongest the Market and restore sanity, which, he said, was becoming ungovernable.

Mr Bodza stated that many traders in the Market were becoming recalcitrant, adding that, the Assembly would not hesitate to prosecute anyone caught contravening the Assembly's bye-laws. He observed that most traders refused to use stalls and sheds constructed for them and prefer to sell at the market walkways and in the streets.

Mr. Bodza said despite constant education on the need for the traders to make good use of the facility they remained resolute in disregarding the rules and regulations of the Assembly. He said as a result, a total of 560 open sheds and cubicle stalls remained vacant for the past four years. Mr. Bodza said the Assembly was strengthening market guards to manage the situation and would bring in the Police periodically if the situation continued to be uncontrollable. Meanwhile, some traders who spoke to the GNA said the sheds and stalls were far from the busy and central part of the market. They also claimed that they were not consulted before the facility was constructed and that the allocation fee of GH=A2 40 for opened sheds and GH=A2 100 for cubicle stalls was too much.