Court orders traders at Agbogbloshie to stop selling on pavements or be imprisoned

An Accra Magistrate Court has ordered ten (10) Yam sellers at the Agbogbloshie market to sign a bond to be of good behaviour and not to display their goods for sale in any pathway or avenue of a market.

They are Frank Telekpon, Marboriwe Ntekellama, Awiase Mmolebe, Wisdom Bindiche, Ebenezer Benkom, Yindo Mohammed, Kiki Majaba, Bepa Yayen, Seth Ngmagna and Nakulin Elija.

The yam sellers who pleaded guilty to the charge of obstructing a public pathway contrary to section 10 of the 2017 AMA Public Markets bye-laws will in breach of the bond serve a minimum of not less than three months imprisonment with hard labour.

The La Magistrate Court also surcharged the yam sellers to pay an amount of GH¢1000 to the AMA for the expenses incurred in transporting the yams from the market.

Prosecution led by the Public Health Department of the AMA narrated that the yam sellers were part of 20 traders arrested at the Agbogbloshie market on Wednesday, 8 February 2023 by the AMA and the police during an enforcement exercise for displaying their wares for sale on a road and bare floor.

Traders after the ruling, in an interaction with journalists, promised to stop selling at the roadside and encouraged the other yam sellers to do the same as a result of what they had witnessed in court.

It will be recalled that the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) prior to the order by the court had announced plans to deal decisively with traders who display their goods on the bare floor for sale and at unauthorised places at Agbogbloshie market, the biggest market in Accra.

The Chief Executive of the AMA, Elizabeth Naa Kwatsoe Tawiah Sackey who made the announcement when she paid an unannounced visit to the market noted that as part of the special operation, traders found selling behind the dwarf wall and along the road, would be arrested, fined and prosecuted adding that vehicles parked on the shoulders of the road would be towed.

"We are going to enforce the bye-laws to the latter. Traders selling behind the Agbogbloshie market dwarf wall will not be spared, anyone caught will be arrested, fined or sent to court...The traders have already been educated not to display their foodstuff on the bare ground for sale but the practice persists. We will enforce the law and ensure that they leave the mandated 3 feet gap between the ground and their foodstuff," she said.