A policy analyst in Tamale wants the metropolitan assembly to disclose the amount involved in carrying out the recent decongestion exercise in the city.

The assembly, as part of measures to sustain the exercise setup security posts made up of a platoon of military to scare hawkers from coming back to the streets. But the cost involved to sustain the exercise is still a secret held at the chest of the assembly.

The Mayor of Tamale Iddrisu Musah Superior is alleged to have flagged off a question regarding the cost of performing the operation from a journalist at a press conference, an issue that remains a public concern trending on social media for weeks.

“We don’t want a situation where the cost of keeping these people away becomes unreasonable on us,” says Alhassan Ziblim on Radio Tamale’s flagship news platform, the Absolute News on Thursday.

Mr. Ziblim runs the Center for Development and Policy Advocacy in Tamale.

“We need to know whether there’s value for money in what is happening because the metropolis is having a lot of challenges,” he said.

According to him, the decongestion exercise is just one of the numerous priorities of the metropolis therefore “the city should not spend unreasonably.”

Many people are worried about the sustainability of the exercise because similar actions in the past to decongest the city yielded minimal results, but the Mayor said “I want to assure everybody here that so long as I remain the metropolitan chief executive of Tamale, I will do all it requires within my powers and within the authority of the assembly to sustain it. This exercise so dear to my heart.”

The latest exercise involved the chiefs and imams in the city who declared their unflinching support to the exercise.

“Once again, let me use this opportunity to thank the chiefs, the imams, the opinion leaders and all respected people in society for their support in this controversial but very important exercise,” he said at an opening address at a press conference.

Mr. Alhassan Ziblim however commended the mayor’s effort in carrying out the exercise.