City authorities are excited at the outcome of a court case against street hawkers which they say will boost their crusade against trading on the streets. Twelve yam sellers were a fortnight ago sentenced to three months imprisonment but were on Tuesday asked to pay GHS100 and be bonded never to return to the streets again. The traders were arrested last month following a clash with police and city guards who had gone to the Graphic Road to stop them from selling on the streets. They were charged with selling merchandise on the street and causing unlawful harm. Eight of them pleaded guilty to the charge of selling yam on the street and sentenced to three months in prison and also fined 120 Ghana cedis each. Four others who pleaded not guilty were remanded for two weeks. Back in court on Tuesday, Joy News’ Joseph Opoku reported that the hawkers changed their earlier plea of not guilty to guilty. One of them knelt down in the courtroom and pleaded with the judge for forgiveness. The Judge, Ali Baba Abature of the Community Center Court B said since they had shown remorse, he would have bonded them to 12 months to be of good behaviour. He vacated their earlier sentence and fine, but ordered them to jointly pay an amount of GHS100 to cover the medical bills of two AMA city guards who were assaulted during a scuffle that ensued in the exercise to rid the street of the sellers. He however warned them not to return to the streets to hawk. The yam sellers looked elated at the decision. They had no legal representation. Lawyer for the AMA, Yaw Twumasi Ankrah, told Joy News the assembly was satisfied with the ruling. However another lawyer, Egbert Faibille was unimpressed. Even though he conceded that it was not illegal to have the suspects tried without a counsel, he argued that it was better for them to have been made aware of their rights to a lawyer. Source: Joy News/Ghana