The New Juaben South Municipal Assembly in collaboration with the security services, made up of police, fire, prisons, immigration etc. together with the Eastern Regional Minister, Hon. Seth Kwame Acheampong, Hon. Michael Okyere Baafi, Member of Parliament for New Juaben South Constituency and Hon. Isaac Appaw- Gyasi, Municipal Chief Executive for New Juaben South embarked on a ‘mother of all decongestion exercise’ to ensure that the streets of Koforidua and its pavements are free from hawkers, trading and unauthorized parking on roads.

The exercise, started at 5am at all principal streets of Koforidua, some market women and hawkers did comply with the directives while others were not. The Eastern regional minister Hon. Seth Acheampong, with his team told the citizenry that they are trying to help them move to a prescribed markets being it Agartha market, Zongo market or Central market so as to reduce congestion within the township.

In the early hours of the day, the team stormed the central business of Koforidua to clear of wayward traders’; hawkers who sell on pavement, bus stops, on roads and other unauthorized places. The decongestion exercise brought together the Assembly member, New Patriotic Party (NPP) activists and committees setup by the Eastern regional minister to ensure that the exercise goes on well and strategically implemented.

Following the numerous of sensitization and series of meeting with the press encounter and other stakeholders within the municipality, in order to drum home the agenda, all hawkers, traders, and other recalcitrant traders paid heed to the call and cleared their belongings from the pavements, bus stops and on roads. After the decongestion exercise, Hon. Seth Acheampong said, “the exercise was successful and encouraging and will go a long way to aid pedestrians and vehicular movement on our road. He also added by saying, the decongestion exercise everywhere is a tassel between the law enforcers and citizens, so our stakeholders engagement has really encouraged the citizenry to comply with directives. We are going to continue with the exercise and pursue it until we realize that, Koforidua, the city of flowers, is a place that everybody must look up to, and indeed, a journey like this is not going to be an easy enterprise for us”.

“As city managers it behooves on us to must provide power play for the people to pursue and follow, so we will continue to engage the people and work with them. We really want to thank the security services, media houses and the various teams that participated to make the exercise a success”. He reiterated.