Ade Coker, a former Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has stated no NDC person will support the Kumasi Mayor over his decision to flog traders.
According to Ade Coker, lashing people will not work, he urged the Kumasi Mayor to look at the demeanour of John Mahama and work accordingly.
Speaking on Accra-based Asempa FM, Ade Coker stated, “Lashing people won’t work. No NDC person will support him and I have heard that he has revised his notes…Then he can’t be a leader. You must find ways of creating jobs so people can clean the place at night and that is part of the 24hours we are talking about.
He had an idea, but he went beyond. I don’t think that is the character of the person who appointed him. You should look at your leader. The demeanor of your leader and work accordingly. Your leader is not reckless so you can’t be reckless”.
The NDC man further added, “He should build markets for them. We want to see him building the central market and rehabilitating the place and making sure there are other satellite markets where people can go and trade. These ad-hoc measures have not been of help to us in this 21st century.
Go to other countries, and you can even sleep in their markets. So I disagree with what he intended to do. If I had his phone number, I would have called him and told him you don’t sit on national television and say this”, he added.
Additionally, Simon Osei-Mensah, the former Ashanti Regional Minister has stated there is no law backing the flogging of defiant traders.
Reacting to the comments made by the Kumasi mayor, on CITI FM Osei-Mensah stated, “There’s no law supporting it,”
The former regional minister urged the Kumasi Mayor to consider more humane alternatives to address the issue of street trading and signalled his clear disapproval of the flogging of traders.
Meanwhile, the Mayor of Kumasi, Richard Ofori Agyemang Boadi has defended his remarks about flogging traders selling on the pavement.
Speaking on CITI FM the Kumasi Mayor stated, “I don’t believe in using the police for decongestion because I will spend so much on them, and after that, we will get back to the status quo,” he said.
“Those in the middle of the road, some of them are cooking, selling all manner of food, it’s not attractive, I want to deal with it head-on. Kumasi is engulfed with so much filth and I want to deal with it head-on”, he added.
