The La Magistrate Court has ordered 10 Yam sellers at the Agbogbloshie market to stop selling on pavements.
The traders were also made to sign a bond to be of good behavior and desist from such practice.
Should they be in breach of the bond, the traders will have to serve a minimum of not less than three months imprisonment with hard labor.
They are Frank Telekpon, Marboriwe Ntekellama, Awiase Mmolebe, Wisdom Bindiche, Ebenezer Benkom, Yindo Mohammed, Kiki Majaba, Bepa Yayen, Seth Ngmagna and Nakulin Elija.
They pleaded guilty to the charge of obstructing a public pathway contrary to section 10 of the 2017 AMA Public Markets bye-laws.
The court also surcharged the yam sellers to pay an amount of GH¢1000 to the AMA for the expenses incurred in transporting the yams from the market.
Prosecution led by the Public Health Department of the AMA narrated that the yam sellers were part of 20 traders arrested at the Agbogbloshie market on Wednesday, February 8, 2023, by the AMA and the police during an enforcement exercise. The traders had displayed their wares for sale on a road and bare floor.
The exercise is part of a special operation to ensure the markets are safe and foodstuffs are sold in the best hygienic conditions.
“We are going to enforce the bye-laws to the letter. Traders selling behind the Agbogbloshie market dwarf wall will not be spared, anyone caught will be arrested, fined, or sent to court.
“The traders have already been educated not to display their foodstuffs on the bare ground for sale but the practice persists. We will enforce the law and ensure that they leave the mandated 3 feet gap between the ground and their foodstuff,” the Chief Executive of the AMA, Elizabeth Naa Kwatsoe Tawiah Sackey stressed.