STMA embark on decongestion exercise at Market Circle

• Posted on January 18, 2023January 18, 2023
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The Takoradi Sub-Metro Director, of the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA), Nana Asempanaye Yeboah has stated that the Assembly will no longer condone the activities of hawkers in undesignated areas within the Central Business District (CBD) of Takoradi to ensure sanity in the city.

His call comes at the back of a planned decongestion exercise by the STMA in Takoradi this week following complaints from the residents of Takoradi and its environs over the activities of traders taking over the streets of Takoradi.

Traders hawking around the Takoradi market circle were therefore given a deadline of Sunday, January 15th, 2023 to move back into the tents and shreds inside the temporary markets either at the Jubilee park, the Takoradi Makeshift market or face the consequences.

When Skyy News’ Patrick Ennimil Arthur visited the Central Business District (CBD) on Tuesday to access the situation at the market circle, he is reporting that the area has been deserted by the hawkers, unlike Saturday when hawkers had filled up the streets on Takoradi to engage in trading activities.

A joint security team made up of city guards from the STMA and military personnel were seen enforcing the decongestion order from the assembly.

Some traders who spoke to our news team expressed their displeasure with the decision of the assembly to stop them from hawking to cater for their families.

But in a sharp rebuttal, the head of the Takoradi Sub-Metro of the STMA, Nana Asempanaye Yeboah said the grace period given to the traders to engage in trading activities on some major streets around the Takoradi Market Circle prior to the Christmas festivities has long elapsed and that they trader should honour their part of the social contract and return to their tents and shreds allocated them inside the mid-shift markets.

Meanwhile, a resident of Takoradi who could not hide his excitement with the action by the Assembly also cautioned the STMA not to make it a nine-day wonder.

Source: Patrick Ennimil Arthur