Fisherfolks ‘snub’ Akufo-Addo’s social distancing order to seek for daily bread

As part of measures to contain the deadly coronavirus which is fast spreading, Ghanaians have been urged by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to practice social distancing to avoid contracting the disease from infected persons.

This directive has been defied by people living within the Tema enclave, as thousands of people thronged to the Tema fishing harbour, on Thursday, April 2, 2020, to wait on fishermen to sell their catch to them.

As early as 6 am, the seashore was filled with fisherfolks who were ready to go about their normal duties; selling and buying of fishes for either personal use or for marketing purposes.

A bystander who spoke to GhanaWeb indicated that “most of these buyers come around 6 am to make a purchase and about 11 am, everything returns to normalcy as almost all have dispersed to either their homes or markets to sell their fishes”.

One of the fishmongers, however, noted that she needed to be at the shore to buy directly from the fishermen, go to the market and sell in other to feed both her husband and children who are home because of the partial lockdown.

She said, “we cannot sleep at home just like that because we have children at home. To make it worse, they are not going to school and they will eat. Their fathers are not working so we are the source of livelihood and since the directive said we could work, we can have to work to feed our husbands and children.”

Though fisherfolks have been exempted from the partial lockdown declared by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the practice of social distancing still applies to them.