Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly (CCMA) has dragged fourteen (14) people in the metropolis before a Cape Coast Magistrate Court to answer why they refused to partake in this month’s National Sanitation Day (NSD) exercise which was held in Cape Coast on August 1.

The fourteen, who included traders, food vendors, companies and residents, all pleaded guilty to their respective charges of failure to attend CCMA communal labour, defecating in unauthorised drains and growth of weeds behind houses among others.

Briefing the court presided over by His Lordship, Justice Michael Boamah Gyamfi, on Tuesday, Prosecutor, Mr. Divine Abotsi of the CCMA Environmental Unit, stated that these people refused to comply with the CCMA directive not to open their shops or trade from 6: A.M., 11:00 A.M., on that day.

He added that while some of the accused were found doing brisk business while the exercise was going on, others refused to partake in the exercise and looked on unconcerned while it was being done

Mr. Abotsi further added that some of them were also found guilty of the assembly’s sanitation regulations as their houses were found in insanitary conditions.

The prosecutor indicated that these people did not give any tangible reasons for their refusal to partake in the exercise when questioned by the CCMA taskforce and again blatantly refused to heed to the summons of the assembly to report to them hence the decision to take legal action.

His Lordship Justice Gyamfi therefore fined three of them 25 penalty units each which is equivalent to GH?300 and adjourned the eleven others to re-appear on August 25.

Later in an interview with the CCMA Environmental Health Analyst, Mr. Solomon Noi, he explained that the NSD exercise has been adopted by his outfit as a means to correct the anomaly of Ghana being the seventh dirtiest country in the world.

He pointed out that the assembly has therefore made it mandatory for all residents in the metropolis to take part in the exercise, adding that anyone who flouts this regulation commits an offence.

Mr. Noi bemoaned the situation where a lot of people in the area refused to take part in the exercise on that day, saying that “pushed us to take actions against them.”

“We want to inculcate in the citizenry positive attitudinal change that is why we are taking legal actions. If they refuse to comply the next time, we will have to give them custodian sentences,” he warned.