Sunyani, (B/A), Oct. 15, GNA - Traders in the Sunyani Municipality have appealed to the authorities to help relocate all lunatics in the area to protect the general public.

A section of market women the Ghana News Agency (GNA) interviewed stated that the lunatics, especially the violent ones, attacked them with stones and sharp objects.

Madam Akua Manu, a Trader, said the market women had to run for their lives when the lunatics with sharp objects visited their sheds. She expressed concern about the increasing rate of attacks on sellers and customers by the lunatics saying "it posed a threat to our lives as well as the general public". "Some of the lunatics tried to pick items we sold in the market but in our attempt to stop them, they become offended and attack us with offensive objects," she said. Madam Manu identified a particular lunatic who was dumb as the one noted for several attacks on traders and sellers. She said whenever the lunatics entered the market and started misbehaving traders had to run leaving their wares and money to save their lives.

Madam Manu narrated how a lunatic chased a lady who was in the market to buy foodstuffs, hitting the back of her head with a stone. She said it was the timely intervention of some traders that saved her adding that they took the victim, who was bleeding from the cut, to the hospital for treatment. Madam Manu said the mad man was nearly lynched by some young men but was rescued by the same market women that he was chasing. Madam Yaa Aseiduwaa, a Storekeeper, told the GNA that she was nearly attacked by the same dumb lunatic sometime ago when she stopped him from removing some of her stationery and appealed to the authorities to help relocate the lunatics.

Superintendent Charles Botwe, Municipal Police Commander, when contacted said the police was not responsible for the removal of mad people from the streets.

He explained that in such situations the police liaised with the Social Welfare Department to ascertain the background of the mad person to be able to locate their family members. Superintendent Botwe said it was the responsibility of the relatives of lunatics to send them to the psychiatric hospital and appealed to the public to report such matters immediately for the necessary action to be taken. 16 Oct. 08