Some of the traders displaying their produce on the pavement
IN SPITE of the incessant calls by the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) on all traders at the Takoradi Market Circle to move to a new market, some of the traders continue to operate around the old market.
The STMA initiated a move to close down the Takoradi main market to all forms of trading activities to pave way for the redevelopment of the old market.
The over 90-year-old market is being redeveloped in fulfilment of a promise made by government.
The relocation of the traders to the new market allowed the contractor to commence the redevelopment works.
However, when DAILY GUIDE visited the Takoradi Market Circle yesterday, some market women and other traders were still trading around the old market.
All the streets around the old market and walkways were taken over by traders, making human and vehicular movements difficult.
Such recalcitrance by the traders is causing nuisance around the redevelopment site.
Speaking to DAILY GUIDE in separate interviews, some of the traders asserted that they have not been given shops in the new market so they have no option than to sell on the walkways.
Some of them also said they make more money by selling around the old market than doing business inside the new market.
PRO
Meanwhile, the Public Relations Officer of the STMA, John Laste, insists that the traders were not being honest.
He maintained that a good number of the traders who sell on the walkways are refusing to sell in their allocated shops.
He said, “Almost everyone has been given a shop or a shed inside the main areas. But what I have observed is that most of them have moved from their sheds and shops and have come onto the roads to trade.”
He continued, “Some of the traders were arrested and made to pay a fine. However, they continue to sell at the unauthorised places”.
He warned that traders who have come onto the road and walkways to trade even though they have been allocated shops at the makeshift market will have their shops re-allocated to other people.
FROM Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi