The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Numo Blafo interestingly stabbed his boss at the back has decided to give up its decision to evict petty traders off the pedestrian walkways and shoulders of roads in the Central Business District (CBD) of Accra.
The AMA PRO, who in his attempt to solve the puzzle surrounding the hawking activities on the streets, ended up muddying the waters and pushing his boss, the Mayor in a tight corner.
In The Daily Graphic Edition of Friday, February 20, 2015, Numo Blafo was reported to have claimed that the AMA has no money to spend on evicting the traders from the streets.
The areas with huge presence of petty traders in Accra include the Independence Avenue, Kinbu, Derby Avenue, Okaishie, Kaneshie and Kwame Nkrumah Circle.
The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the AMA, Numo Blafo, told the Daily Graphic in an interview that the petty traders returned to the CBD within days after the eviction exercise.
The reason, he said, was that the AMA did not have enough security officers (metro guards) to prevent the petty traders from going back to the streets.
He also claimed that the Assembly would not want to waste any huge sum of money and energy on the eviction exercise only for the petty traders to return to the streets a few days after.
He said the AMA had realised that one of the main reasons behind the recalcitrant nature of the petty traders was because they could not secure spaces at the various markets.
However, snippets of information received from the office of the Mayor indicate that the Mayor, Dr Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije, is unhappy about the claims.
The source indicated that, the traders are back on the streets because the 13 markets have been given to contractors for rehabilitation and reconstruction after which every single trader will be allocated space within the markets to sell so as to put an end to the hawking activities on the streets.
The source also hinted that it isn?t true that the AMA has lost the fight but that it is considering not jeopardizing peoples? livelihoods and hence steps are being taken to ensure that traders have adequate accommodation to market their goods.
Spyghana.com has also receive hint that the PRO of the Assembly, Numo Blafo could be sanctioned for messing up on that.
