Hawkers can’t be sacked with force- former Mayor warns

The former Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) under the erstwhile Kufuor administration, Stanley Nii Adjiri Blankson has stated that no mayor can succeed in the fight to get hawkers off the streets of Accra through brutal and vicious means.

According to Mr Adjiri Blankson, he was successful in getting hawkers off the streets of Accra for well over eight months through the practical approach of ensuring that alternate market centres were created for the hawkers, and not through the use of force.

His comments come after 11 hawkers were jailed 90 days for selling yams and onions on the Graphic and Beyeeman intersections. The hawkers reportedly clashed with members of the AMA task force unit and the Police Service when the two bodies attempted to drive them off the streets.

The current boss of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly has been accused by many hawkers and some residents of the capital of abusing the economic rights of the hawkers by using able bodied men and women of a special task force to get hawkers off the streets of Accra.

However, speaking for the first time since he left office in January 2009, on the Citi Eyewitness News on Wednesday July 20, Stanley Adjiri Blankson said it would be impossible for any mayor to ensure that all hawkers are driven from the streets of Accra through the use of force.

“One thing that every mayor must know and I want to say it here: you can never use force to achieve your goal. You don’t need to use force; you will never win if you use force. I never used force; did you hear when we had that decongestion exercise?” he asked.

“They are humans like us and they have got leaders. Anytime I wanted to deal with them, I would invite their leaders and the message would sieve down but if you want to use force it will never work” he advised.

The former AMA boss said education and sensitization is the only way that can achieve the desired result of getting the hawkers off the streets of the capital.

He added that unless hawkers are completely cleared off the streets of Accra, it would be difficult to achieve and maintain the Millennium City status that the country is fighting for.

Mr Adijiri Blankson also pleaded with the current AMA boss to tamper justice with mercy and facilitate the release of the jailed hawkers.

Source: Citifmonline.com