KMA to clamp down on recalcitrant traders

The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) is to clamp down on traders on the main footbridge linking the Kumasi Central Market and the Central Business District.

In recent times, the traders have taken over the bridge, impeding human movements and creating unnecessary human traffic and congestion.

Several attempts at evicting them have failed but the KMA is strategising to descend on them.

These traders have created spaces for themselves on the footbridge, where they trade every day.

As a result, there have been incessant clashes between traders and pedestrians on the right of way.

Apart from the trading activities, some beggars have also invaded the place to increase the fight over space.

In an interview with The Finder, the Public Relations Officer of the assembly, Godwin Okumah Nyame, said the assembly had warned traders on many occasions but they had refused to listen, hence the need for the decongestion exercise.

He said the bridge was constructed to ease human congestion in the city and prevent pedestrians from being knocked down by vehicles.

According to him, there were spaces in both the major and satellite markets in the metropolis and, therefore, asked the traders to resettle.

Mr Nyame warned that any trader found fighting a pedestrian on the bridge would be made to face the full rigours of the law.