The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) is reinforcing its decongestion exercise to eject all traders and hawkers who ply their business in the central business district. A decongestion taskforce was established about two-and-half years ago to ensure the pavements and walkways in Adum, Kejetia and other parts of the city centre were free of unauthorized structures. A statement issued by the Assembly however says some traders have returned to settle on the pavements, creating human and vehicular congestion. The traders have been ordered to move out of the pavements by Monday, May 7, 2012. “The decongestion team together with all the security personnel at the Assembly have been called to action and would kick-start the demolishing of all wooden structures along all walkways in the metropolis”, said the statement. The team would also confiscate wares of recalcitrant traders and prosecute offenders. “This position by the authorities of KMA is intended to reinforce general discipline and order need to ensure free flow of traffic in the metropolis. The Assembly wishes to reiterate that nobody should read politics into this exercise since the motive is to restore sanity in the metropolis”, it noted. Public Relations Officer of the KMA, Godwin Okuma-Nyame acknowledged the persistent challenge of keeping hawkers off the pavements. He however says the decongestion exercise remains a process and not an event. “There is the need for the Assembly to strategize and make sure that people do not sell on the pavements, people do not sell on the streets. Occasionally some of the traders and the hawkers in a try to be lawless…so since it is not an event, anytime they came back to the streets to sell, there will be the need for the assembly to re-strategize as to how best to clear them of the streets and the pavements”, he told Luv Fm. The decongestion team moved out on Monday to entreat the traders to voluntarily vacate the pavements.