The Ashanti Regional Minister Sampson Kwaku Boafo has asked the police in Kumasi to arrest a man who is alleged to have collected monies from displaced street hawkers in the metropolis under the pretest of awarding them market stalls.

The fraudster identified only as Ananse was nearly lynched by the desperate traders, on Tuesday when it was discovered that ? 20 thousand paid to him ostensibly on the authority of the regional minister was false.

Explaining the circumstances of the episode to Joy News, Mr. Boafo said he knew the man in question but only as an NPP activist from his Subin constituency.

The regional minister said a reporter known as Omega from our sister station LUV FM in Kumasi drew his attention to the incident.

?It was one of the reporters Omega who actually reported to me that somebody was using my name as the minister to collect ?20,000 per person at the Race Course, so I even instructed Omega to cause his arrest and bring him to the offices of KMA?. he said.

? I called the police, the KMA Task Force and the PRO and others went to the site where the people who hailed me mentioned that some one had come earlier on to collect ?20,000.?he said.

According to the minister, when Omega brought Ananse in the company of another person and queried he denied taking any money from the hawkers and that he was just writing their names down.

Asked is if he authorized Ananse to write the names, Mr. Boafo replied in the negative.

He said a committee has been instituted for appropriate allocation of the stalls in the market.