Accra, Oct. 18, GNA - The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) on Wednesday night gave some bite to its vow to decongest the metropolis when it embarked on a massive exercise to rid the city of unauthorised structures.
The city authorities have also vowed to sustain the exercise until people see reason.
At about 2300 hours, a team of over 400 drawn from the police striking force, AMA's special task force and metropolitan guards and the traditional authorities descended on selected parts of the city, destroying stalls and other structures deemed to be defacing the metropolis.
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.
Three teams of the task force undertook simultaneous, but controlled demolition of structures at the Wato, Liberty Avenue, UTC, Rawlings Park, Kojo Thompson Road and the 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 demolition 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 task force 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 host the Ghana 2008 football tournament in order to give "our visitors a positive image of our dear country".
