Recalcitrant Hawkers Still Doing Business On Pavements

credit: Naa Betty Mingle

Although the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) task force keeps throwing away and destroying hawkers’ items for selling at authorised places, some traders still remain recalcitrant.

The picture shows a trader who has refused to leave the pedestrian pavement at the Kimbu Gardens, around the High Street, and has occupied a part of the pavement selling insecticides, insect powder and other products.

He also has a bicycle with the drugs displayed on it taking some part of the pavement. Some nearby traders claimed that the AMA task force takes money from him, and allow him to sit there, with the excuse that he sold medicines.

When approached, he was unwilling to talk to the Accra File, saying, “We all need to survive like the way you are working, so live me alone, and let me do my business.” Some traders told the file that due to the bribes he gives to some members of the task force, he ignores other taskforces when they try driving him away.

Others said the tension was not too much during the festive season, and that most of them were selling on the pavements, but were driven away immediately after the Christmas. Some therefore, commended the AMA for good work, since there is no longer congestion on most of the pavements in Accra.