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AMA strikes to decongest Accra
Accra, Oct. 18, Ghanadot/GNA - At about 2300 hours on
Wednesday, a team of more than 400 drawn from the Police
Striking Force, AMA Special Taskforce and Metropolitan
Guards and Traditional Authorities descended on selected
parts of the City, destroying stalls and other structures
deemed to be defacing the Metropolis.
The city authorities have also vowed to sustain the exercise
until people saw reason.
The exercise, which is expected to last for three days, is
the third in three years and is a result of the persistent
refusal of hawkers to move into stalls provided for them by
the AMA at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle.
The demolishing squad was divided into three and undertook
the exercise simultaneously at the Wato, Liberty Avenue, UTC,
Rawlings Park, Kojo Thompson Road and Makola Market.
They then merged and continued the exercise at the environs
of the Kwame Nkrumah Circle and the Kaneshie Lorry Park.
The exercise did not meet with any form of resistance, as
most of the owners of the structures had been served notice
since August.
Some owners of the structures, who were sleeping close to
these structures either looked on helplessly or fled the
area because of the sheer numbers of the demolishing team.
The team wound up at the Mateheko First Light area at the
about 0420 hours on Thursday.
AMA is to carry out a similar exercise at Tema Station on
Thursday morning and tackle others areas like East Legon,
Airport Residential Area, Tetteh Quarshie Interchange,
Dzorwulu, Cantonments and Labone, which are being overrun by
nondescript structures.
Stanley Nii Adjiri Blankson, AMA Chief Executive, briefing
the media and the taskforce before the commencement of the
exercise, said even though the Assembly recognised the fact
that people had to earn a living, the AMA was "fed up with
the belligerent attitude" of some people “to make life
unpleasant for other people".
"We are fed up.... And we would do and use everything within
our means to ensure that the city is transformed to its
deserved status.
"This exercise is not about politics, religion nor
ethnicity. It is about providing a service to the millions
of the city's residents, who have been held hostage by the
attitude of people who do not want to conform to the laws of
the land.
"And we will not allow this. Even if it takes us a year, we
will sustain this exercise till people see reason."
Nii Adjiri announced that personnel from the Police, the
Community Protection Unit, the Prisons Service, Metro guards
and the Boys Scout would as from 0500 hours of Thursday,
October 18, be placed at areas that have been decongested to
"consolidate our gains" during the exercise.
He appealed to hawkers and residents in the Metropolis to
strive to keep the city clean, as Ghana would host the Ghana
2008 football tournament in order to give "our visitors a
positive image of our dear country".
GNA
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