Accra: Court issues bench warrant for arrest of 7 sanitation offenders

An Accra Magistrate Court has issued a bench warrant for the arrest of some seven persons in the Ashiedu Keteke Sub-Metropolitan District facing sanitation charges.

The seven were dragged to court by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) after they failed to abate nuisances following notices served on them after the recent clean-up exercise held in Ga Mashie.

The court presided over by Her Worship, Mrs Juliet Osei Doudu issued the bench warrant on Tuesday after they failed to appear before it to respond to sanitation charges levelled against them by the Environmental Health Officers of the AMA.

The offences include the absence of toilet facility on-premises, obstructing public pathway by cooking on a public street at Bukom, discharging of untreated effluent into the sea, unsanitary commercial bathhouse and accumulation of detrimental particles that pose health hazards to the community, handling and selling food for public consumption without a medical certificate, unsanitary drains which pose health hazards.

Mr Joseph Nii Okine, a prosecutor with the AMA who applied for the warrant when the cases were called on Monday explained to the court that notices of abatement were served on the seven accused persons to correct the nuisance but they did not oblige after which summons were served on them to appear before the La Magistrate Court but failed.