Serial murders affect business environment in Accra.

Serial murders that rocked the country recently are having their toll on Accra's trading environment. Women traders, the main victims, now appear to have abandoned their familiar early dawn and late night commuting in pursuit of their vocation, the period that the perpetrators found convenient to strike. A survey by the Ghana News Agency in Accra, reveals that business undertaken particularly by women has slackened to a late start and early closure. This gives a guarantee for their safety but it also means a slash on their earnings as some market women and business people around the popular Tema lorry station and Makola market, told the survey team.

They said that for fear of their lives, they now get to the market and other trading points around 8 AM instead of 5 AM giving them shorter periods for sales. " This has made it necessary for some of us to increase the prices of foodstuff to make up for the loss", one plantain seller said.

Ama Frema, a bread seller, said she now misses the patronage of early travellers who bought her bread at her selling point at the lorry station. "This is no longer possible since we do not get to town early enough for fear of being killed."

A Shoes seller, who gave her name as Adjoa, said traders are sometimes forced to sleep at the markets when they have to sell late into the night. According to her, the recent shortage of diesel, which caused a dislocation in transportation, also compelled a number of market women and traders to sleep in groups by their wares overnight.

A few daring women however, said they would not be bogged down by fear of being murdered. "When you are too anxious, that is when you get killed", a young lady working with a communications centre said.

She said she often closes from work at 9 PM and does not take any special precautions because she is not afraid. Two women shop assistants said although they had heard about the killings, they have not taken any specific steps to ensure their safety since, as they put it, "we pray every day and believe in God".

The police are yet to uncover the mystery surrounding the serial murders and with the pervading uneasy calm after the stormy protests mainly by women's groups, hopes of finding the perpetrators appear to be dwindling. - africast/GNA