The Decongested Streets At Kwame Nkrumah Circle (In Set: The AMA Taskforce Clearing The Streets)
Traders who thronged the streets of Accra during Christmas season to sell their wares, have moved to the markets owing to the decongestion exercise undertaken by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) on Monday, 8 January, 2018.
The exercise was undertaken by the AMA taskforce and state security agencies.
They cleared the pavements of the major streets in Accra of tables, chairs and filth.
Members of the security taskforce of the AMA positioned themselves at vantage points to maintain law and order.
The Chief Executive of AMA, Mohammed Adjei Sowah in an interview with the media, observed that the decongestion exercise is to increase vehicular and human movement, as well as rid the city of filth.
According to him, the exercise is intended to enforce the Assembly’s bye-laws and create a new order that will instill discipline in the city.
He said the Assembly is poised to make the exercise a feature of his administration, and warned all shop owners who extend their trade to the walkways and dump refuse on the streets to stop the practice or risk the closure of their shops.
“The exercise was very successful and people continue to ask whether it’s going to be a Nine day wonder, well I don’t know of that but you could see the energy that I have. It is going to be an order of our administration that is what we can assure you,” he said.
Traders React
The exercise, however, did not go down well with some traders who said the Assembly should have given them more time to relocate.
They indicated that they sold on the streets because they wanted money to pay their children’s school fees.
“All we are saying is that they should give us some time maybe till the end of January to finish selling and get some money to pay our children’s school fees and we will go back,” Aunty Yaa, a trader at the Kwame Nkrumah Avenue, said.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri