The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has announced plans to deal decisively with traders who display their goods on the bare floor for sale and at unauthorised places at Agbogbloshie market, the biggest food market in Accra.
According to the AMA, its Public Health Officials would begin a special operation to crack down on the traders at Agbogbloshie market on the 1st of February 2023, throughout the month, to ensure the safety of both traders and buyers.
The Chief Executive of the AMA, Elizabeth Naa Kwatsoe Tawiah Sackey disclosed this on Tuesday when she paid an unannounced visit to the market ahead of an exercise to decongest the city.
She noted that as part of the special operation traders found selling behind the dwarf wall and along the road, would be arrested, fined and prosecuted adding that vehicles parked on the shoulders of the road would be towed.
"We are going to enforce the bye-laws to the latter. Traders selling behind the Agbogbloshie market dwarf wall will not be spared, anyone caught will be arrested, fined or sent to court...The traders have already been educated not to display their foodstuff on the bare ground for sale but the practice persists. We will enforce the law and ensure that they leave the mandated 3 feet gap between the ground and their foodstuff," she said.
The AMA boss who led the team reiterated that some of the traders after all the education and engagements over the years against displaying their goods on the bare ground and at unauthorised places, continue to go contrary and therefore the Assembly would not show any mercy in dealing with such offenders anymore.
She also cautioned buyers to refrain from buying from the roadside of all the markets in Accra to avoid arrest and prosecution while bemoaning the possibility of getting involved in an accident while displaying goods at or buying from the roadside.
With deep concern, the mayor again admonished traders to erect platforms on which their goods would be displayed for sale instead of displaying them on the bare floor to avoid contamination.
She also warned traders and commuters against littering and indiscriminate dumping of refuse into drains.
The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) through its Public Health Department prosecuted 477 environmental health and sanitation offenders in 2022 representing 61% out of the 784 cases recorded for the year.
The offences included; accumulation of refuse, food safety issues, waste collection registration failure, unsanitary drains, overgrowth of weeds, open defecation, littering in the city centre and other environmental health and sanitation offences contrary to the Public Health Act 851 (Act 2012), AMA 2017 Bye-laws.