AMA sets up task force to enforce discipline at Kwame Nkrumah Interchange
A two hundred and thirty-member task force has been set up by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to prevent hawkers from using the magnificent Kwame Nkrumah Interchange as a market area.
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The task force has become necessary because although an alternative place has been provided by the AMA at the Odawna Market for the hawkers, there is the tendency of traders using the interchange as a market, as past experiences have shown.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic yesterday, the Head of the Rapid Response Unit of the Assembly, Dr Philip Lamptey, said tens of hawkers had been moved to the Odawna Market as of the time of the visit.
In addition, he said some of his men were also directing pedestrians to use the right walkways, while others were sweeping the place in order to keep the area clean.
The interchange, which was inaugurated by President Mahama last Monday, is expected to ease traffic and decongest trading activities in the area.
The $74 million project was jointly financed by the Brazilian Government and the Government of Ghana.
When the Daily Graphic visited the interchange yesterday, it observed that some hawkers were busily displaying their wares in the vicinity. Some individuals were also using the place as one of rest.
That was in spite of the fact that notices had been posted on the lanes cautioning the public that trespassers will be fined GH¢500 for hawking or trespassing on parts of the interchange
Not nine days’ wonder
Mr Lamptey said the task force would not leave any stone unturned to ensure that sanity prevailed at the interchange, stating We are not going to allow anybody to do any business on the pavements or cross the road anyhow. So whatever we have started, we are not going to stop it till thy kingdom come.”
He said the first strategy of the task force was to move traders back to the market and thereafter educate the public on the need to keep the area clean.
With effect from the middle of December, he said anybody who would frown on the directives would be prosecuted.
“We are at the very soft level advising and educating them not to be doing what they are not supposed to be doing. So you can see that we are not rushing on them. Very soon the public will get to know that whatever they are doing, they need to do something that they themselves would benefit from,’’ he said.
Public co-operation
Mr Lamptey also called for the co-operation of the public saying, “we want the public to support whatever we are doing. We are not here to intimidate people. We are here to ensure sanity; we are making sure that whatever we see today should be something that should come to stay. It is not about politics, it is about we building a better Ghana.’’
Some of the traders randomly spoken to by the Daily Graphic, were full of praise for President John Mahama for executing what they described as a wonderful project. however, some hawkers complained that the conversion of the Kwame Nkrumah Circle into an interchange had negatively affected their livelihood.