Accra, May 3, GNA - Members of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) on Tuesday expressed their anger at the handling of the decongestion exercise by the authorities and for the first time prevented their Mayor from addressing the Second Ordinary Meeting of the Third Session of the assembly over the latest development in the exercise.

The assembly members registered their displeasure over the way the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development was handling the decongestion exercise.

Forty-four members supported the motion that the Mayor, Mr Stanley Nii Adjiri-Blankson should suspend his address to the assembly to enable various committee members to deliberate on how the decongestion exercise was being handled.

Most of the members contended that it was the assembly that took a unanimous decision on the decongestion exercise without any interference from authorities.

According to them the decongestion was now receiving political dimension hence rendering their efforts useless.

"We are solidly behind him (Mayor). In fact, it was not the mayor alone who took the decision. We the members did," they contended. The assembly earlier this year embarked on a decongestion exercise at business centre in the metropolis to rid it of hawkers and petty traders who had taken over pavements and streets. The mayor explained to members that his address would capture latest issues on the decongestion hence he should be allowed to deliver it.

Mr. Adjiri-Blankson told members that the Minister of Local Government and the Greater Accra Regional Minister would be present at their meeting on Wednesday for deliberation to begin on the issue. But members declined to his plea and voted against the delivery of the address.

The assembly's sitting continues tomorrow (Wednesday).