The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has arrested a 46-year-old coconut trader for allegedly converting a designated pedestrian walkway and bus stop into an unauthorised trading and storage area.
The trader, identified as Emmanuel Awotwi, was apprehended during an enforcement operation after officials discovered more than 500 coconuts occupying a significant section of a bus stop along the Professor John Evans Atta Mills High Street, near the Arts Centre in Accra.
The Assembly said the trader had allegedly obstructed a public walkway intended for pedestrians, creating inconvenience for commuters and other road users.
The arrest forms part of the AMA’s ongoing decongestion exercise aimed at reclaiming public spaces, removing unauthorised structures and enforcing city by-laws across the capital.
City authorities have intensified efforts in recent months to clear pavements, bus stops and other public spaces of traders and other unauthorised occupants as part of measures to improve sanitation, ease pedestrian movement and enhance urban order.
The AMA has reiterated its commitment to sustaining the exercise and warned that persons who flout the Assembly’s regulations by occupying public spaces illegally will face arrest and prosecution.
