Traders Dare Metropolitian Assembly

Following Accra Metropolitan Assembly's (AMA's) declared intention to crack down on noisy hawkers and petty traders in a bid to decongest the Central Business District (CBD) of the metropolis, a section of the hawkers that goes by the name "Positive Traders Association of Ghana" (POTAG), from Okaishie, a suburb of Accra, has warned that the city administration should proceed with caution.

The chairman of the association, Mr. Abraham Sarfo, speaking to pressmen in Accra last week, said even though the association is aware of the nuisance hawkers are creating in the city, if AMA failed to locate a place for them to go before embarking on its ejection exercise there would be trouble.

Sarfo maintained that these hawkers numbering over 10,000 and made up of JSS, SSS and even graduates from our universities would become a problem for the government, considering the harsh economic conditions prevailing in the country.

Dilating further, Sarfo said the move by AMA in recruiting men to get hawkers and petty traders off the streets and pavements is not the panacea to decongestion, but rather it will compound it stealthily in a different direction which, he said, would become a more ferocious and bitter pill for the society to swallow.

He said even though there had been negotiations between them and AMA and a lot of proposals written to the latter, nothing good has come out of it.

He said if AMA is ejecting them, then the appropriate place should be given them, and it should be fast, adding that this singular act of AMA in the past has untimely terminated majority of their means of livelihood and many others rendered redundant.

He, however, called on the government to quickly intervene to save them from the trauma they are going through at the hands of AMA.

The chairman noted that even though they do well appreciate AMA's declared intention of working around the clock to locate a place for them, it has kept too long.

He, therefore, called for speedy action.

Assuring the AMA, the chairman said if AMA gets them a place to relocate, they would rally behind it to ensure that no member finds his or her way back onto the streets and pavements.

Finally, Sarfo appealed to AMA and the government to take a second look at the issue, adding that the contribution that the association puts into the financial coffers of AMA, cannot be overemphasised.

So any attempt to remove them would put severe financial assault on the coffers of AMA and the government as a whole, he observed.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of AMA, Mr. Charles Parker-Allotey, he told the Chronicle that even though there had been some negotiations between some of the hawkers and petty traders and AMA, the honeymoon period is over, saying " now is the time for action."

"Negotiations at this moment won't help them," he stressed with all seriousness, warning "nobody has given them permits to operate on the streets and pavements for them to be relocated and, therefore, they must be prepared to leave with immediate effect."

The AMA spokesman revealed that a recent survey by the assembly indicated that about 65 - 70% of these noisy hawkers and petty traders have already obtained stores in the markets and he did not see the reason why these people must leave their stores to operate in unauthorized places.

Even though he admitted that AMA's revenue collection has fallen since the ejection exercise, the PRO maintained that would not be too much a bother now as compared to the nuisance these people are creating in the Central Business District (CBD).

He said those who are found back on the streets after the exercise would be arraigned before court and the necessary fine or jail sentence slapped on them to serve as a deterrent to others.

"This exercise would not be a nine-day wonder, we are waging war against them," he stressed.