Market women lament

A section of market women operating around the Takoradi Market Circle have bemoaned the unhygienic condition under which their seized items are kept by city authorities.

The market women claimed that even though there had been a decongestion exercise to drive them away from the Market Circle, they had to sell illegally at the Central Business District because that is where most of their customers are located.

They indicated that sometimes their goods are seized by the metropolitan guards and handed over to them at a later date as part of measures to deter them from selling around the Market Circle.

Their worry, however, is that bulk of their wares including perishable edibles are seized and kept at dilapidated and unkempt offices.

“We have gathered that our seized goods are kept at places where rodents, cockroaches and other poisonous insects hover and feed on them.”

According to them, it becomes difficult to sell their products after they had been seized and handed over to them as the customers refuse to buy.

“How much do we poor market women even get from the sale of oranges, tomatoes, pepper, onion, garden eggs, plantain, cassava and smoked fish?” they queried

The market women, who spoke to DAILY GUIDE in separate interviews, alleged that the city’s task forces almost always have a single selective agenda of brandishing clubs and cudgels in the Central Business District area and chasing them away.

“Our crime as poor and enterprising women is that, we cause congestion and inconvenience at the Central Business District Area of Takoradi.”

They stated, “But what has happened to the commercial drivers who keep on flouting the rules with impunity and impudence? The drivers operate illegally from the Liberation Road through the Ahanta Road to the Collins Avenue.”

“What about those taxi drivers who have virtually turned the rather busy road opposite the MTN office to a taxi rank”?

The market women wondered whether the city guards had never set eyes on taxis and other commercial vehicles that have also converted the road stretching from Day By Day Pharmacy to First Samuel Enterprise in Takoradi to a cargo station.

“Or was the so called decongestion targeted at only poor, helpless and feeble market women,” they inquired.

They stated, “Look at the uncompromising posture with which the so-called decongestion task force evicted those who sell fruits and vegetables opposite the Market Circle Post Office.”

They have, therefore, called on the assembly to use the same vim and vigour to descend on other illegal occupants elsewhere in the metropolis.

Efforts to speak to the Metropolitan Public Relations Officer, John Laste, on the issue proved futile.