The area after the exercise
The Sekondi Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) has evicted all illegal traders operating around the Takoradi Market Circle of the Western Region.
DAILY GUIDE gathered that the decongestion exercise did not take the traders by surprise since they were given prior notice.
Announcements about the exercise were also made on some radio stations in the Metropolis.
Several wooden structures and all unauthorized objects around the market were demolished and some taken away by the Assembly’s city guards.
Prior to the demolition exercise, the market circle was heavily congested as a result of an invasion by hawkers and other traders who were found at every corner of the central business district.
The traders took over the pavements, pedestrian walkways and parking spaces making the market circle untidy, dirty and overcrowded.
They sold a wide range of items, from vegetables, fruits, shoes, tissue paper, drinks, jewellery to used clothing.
According to the STMA, the exercise was meant to make pedestrian movement easier, faster and convenient.
The Assembly maintained that it would continue the exercise till the traders return into their stalls, stores, sheds while those without any shops would be re-located to the Apremdo Market near Takoradi.
A visit by DAILY GUIDE to the decongested areas yesterday revealed that traffic flow had improved considerably compared to what existed before the exercise.
It was also revealed that the STMA’s city guards had been deployed at some vantage points to ensure that sanity prevailed in the area.
The Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), Kobina Kurentsil Sam, popularly called K.K Sam, explained that during the Christmas celebrations last year, the traders appealed to the Assembly to allow them to trade on the pavements and promised to leave immediately after the yuletide.
“So the Assembly allowed them, and when the time elapsed for them to leave they did not leave”.
“But we thought it was about time to clear them from the unauthorized trading centres and even went further to give them prior notice,” he added.
He indicated that the Assembly had, however, allowed the traders to do business on the pavements after 5pm each day when the main market had closed and also on Sundays.
He pointed out that the Assembly was aware of the increase in the population of the city, which had in turn resulted in the heightened pressure on the current social infrastructure.
According to him, it however did not mean that traders could take over the streets with impunity, adding that “as citizens, we have to know what is right from wrong”.
Mr Sam pointed out that the Assembly would continue to enforce its by-laws to ensure that sanity prevailed in the Sekondi Takoradi Metropolis.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi