By Robert Tachie Menson
Dormaa-Ahenkro (B/R), May 10, GNA – Mr Justice Owusu Ansah Pobee, the Environmental Health Officer of Dormaa Central Municipal Assembly, Bono Region has warned that the Assembly would start to prosecute traders who sell under unhygienic conditions at market places in the municipality.
Mr Pobee gave the warning in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Dormaa-Ahenkro on environmental health issues and issuance of certificates to food vendors in the municipality.
He said after series of public campaigns, awareness creation and sensitisation aimed at drawing the attention of traders to keep and maintain proper hygiene at their selling points in the markets, some of have refused to follow the directions.
“Their food items attracted flies, they lay mat on bare ground along the shoulders of the road which blatantly flouted the rules and is unacceptable”, Mr. Pobee said.
He said opinion leaders and chiefs in the municipality have agreed to the idea and had offered their support for the exercise’s success.
Mr Pobee said staff of the Environmental Health Unit too had been educating members of the public to make the right decisions when buying food items by buying from sellers operating in clean environments.
He said if traders, especially those who sell food items under unhygienic conditions did not get patronage and the necessary sales, they would be compelled to comply with the demand of the law relating to environmental health for the health and safety of the public.
Mr Pobee said when such recalcitrant traders who flouted the Assembly’s orders were summoned, their “influential” relatives would come to the office to plead on their behalf, adding that, that was improper because such approaches only perpetuated wrongdoings in the society.
He said the Assembly would continue to embark on educational campaigns to change people’s negative attitudes and behaviour through effective application of the Assembly’s bye laws against offenders.
GNA