General News of Thursday, 23 July 2015

Source: Today Newspaper

‘Stop defecating in our markets’

Traders in second-hand clothes known in local parlance as “Foss” in the Sekondi District of the Western region have cautioned residents of the area who use their new market as a place of convenience to stop or else face their wrath.

Sekondi, which is one of the oldest towns in the Western region, has now a new market christened, Foss Market, to revive the town back to its normal business as it used to be in the past.

And according to the market women, the situation has made it difficult for them to do business as the stench from the place always sends customers away.

The traders could not understand why till now the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) has not done anything about the issue after they filed several complaints.

In an interview with Today, some of the traders claimed that the STMA had taken money from them and for that matter; it was the Assembly’s responsibility to ensure that the place was comfortable for trading.

Others also complained about the high cost of second-hand clothes bale.

They recounted how much they used to buy a bale of second-hand clothes some years back and how they were sold now in the market.

For instance, they said a bale of second-hand clothes was sold between GHC300.00 and GHC500.00, but now, it was being sold between GHC1100.00 and GHC 1500.00.

“Our businesses will gradually collapse if the authorities do not do something about the situation for us,” the worried traders lamented.