The Ashanti Region Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, is urging traders to travel abroad and trade in illicit drugs like cocaine if they think the economic hardship in the country is unbearable.

The Minister was expressing his frustration at the manner in which traders ply their trade in the markets at various unauthorised spots in Kumasi.

According him, the petty traders who are doing businesses at the Suame roundabout and the Footbridge in the Central Business District are recalcitrant and they do not want law to operate smoothly, so “we need to uproot them by force action”.

He added that the government was not voted into power to allow party sycophants to break the law but rather to make sure they abide by the law.

“We will not spare any New Patriotic Party member who will infringe [upon] the law and makes our job difficult in the metropolis,” he warned.

Mr. Simon Osei Mensah made this provocative statement during the official climax of World Environmental Day celebration in Kumasi.