The Swedruman Council of Chiefs has imposed a ban on night marketing and other businesses at the new Swedru Mandela Market to clamp down on criminal activities.

Nana Aseidu Kobina Botwe II, President of Swedruman Council of Chiefs, made this known at an emergency meeting with market queens at the market at Agona Swedru on Saturday.

He said the Council took the decision following numerous reports from some market women and other residents of the town about activities of miscreants in the area.

According to Nana Botwe, the new Mandela Market had no electricity and other facilities and this had made it easy for criminals to operate at the area to harass women who trade during the night.

Nana Botwe, who is also Swedruhene, denied that he sent people to collect money at the market for the Council and expressed regret about the matter, saying some unscrupulous women wanted to tarnish his name and the Council.

He said the Council had given one–week ultimatum to women, who had abandoned their market stalls at the Main Mandela Market, to return to them to avoid forfeiting them.

Nana Botwe cautioned women, who displayed their wares on the road side during market days, to stop or they would face stiffer punishment from the Council and the Agona West Assembly.

Nana Botwe appealed to the Agona West Assembly to complete work on pavement, erection of sheds, and provision of lights at the Mandela Market to help solve some of the difficulties traders face.

According to the Swedruhene, when it rains, the women found it extremely difficult to trade because the ground had not been paved and there were also no sheds for the traders.

Nana Botwe said the Swedruman Council of Chiefs had banished one Paa Kwesi, a jeans trousers seller at the Mandela market for gross indiscipline and misconduct towards market Queens.