Odododiodo bye-election has nothing to do with return of hawkers - AMA

Accra, Aug. 23, GNA - The Accra Metropolitan Authority (AMA) on Tuesday denied allegations by hawkers that they have been allowed to sell on the streets of the city because the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) does not want to lose the Odododiodio bye-election.

Mr Noel Arcton-Tettey, AMA Public Relations Officer, said President John Agyekum Kufuor had asked for a convenient place to be found for the hawkers.

"This does not mean that the traders should be back on the street," he said, adding that AMA would deal ruthlessly with any hawker found on the street.

A Ghana News Agency reporter had gone round some of the major streets in the city centre to find out how the traders were coping with the decongestion exercise started by the AMA eight months ago. The traders said they had refused to go to sites designated for them by the AMA because such places were too obscure and did not attract customers.

Mr Arton-Tettey said the Authority had identified two new places that were being prepared for the hawkers.

He said so far the Authority had spent about 10 billion cedis on the exercise and appealed to the media to help educate the public on the need to keep the city clean.