Ashaiman, March 29, GNA – There is a mad rush for food items and toiletries in the Ashiaman municipal market by locals in preparation for the government’s announced lockdown on Monday.
President Akufo-Addo announced on Friday that some selected areas in Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions would from Monday 01:00 hours would be on partial lockdown as one of the government’s preventive measures against the spread of the COVID-19.
When the Ghana News Agency visited the Ashiaman market, the market was busting at its seams as shoppers crowded in long queues of at entrance various stores and shed buying foodstuffs and other essentials.
The GNA observed that people were mostly buying rice, oil, fruits, vegetables, maize, beans, gari, corn, and cassava dough.
Some of the shoppers, who spoke to GNA said they were preparing towards the directive of the President towards the partial shutdown in which the area fell within.
“I came to buy some oil, rice, maize, beans, gari and some toiletries to store for the family during the two weeks lockdown of the municipality, ” one of the shoppers said.
She added that even though the country had not reached a crises situation like Italy, Spain and other European countries, there was a need for the country to go on a lockdown to enable the Ghana Health Service to control the virus, since the virus was spread by human movements.
Mr. Samuel Ofori, who was also busily shopping for his family said, “I am taking a cue from preparation being done by people in countries which have recorded the disease”.
According to him, he had seen on social media that in some countries people were fighting over toilet rolls due to shortage.
“My friend, I can’t take chances, we all have to prepare so that in case we are asked to stay indoors form more than the said period, we can help our family and friends”, he said.
Madam Sandy Oman, a nurse who was also buying food items, complained that some shop owners and traders were taking advantage of the situation to arbitrarily increase their prices.
“A product I bought at 70 Ghana cedi’s just last week is now 100 cedi’s, and that is not fair because we are all in this together and we need to hold each other’s back, ” she complained bitterly.
The mad rush of people to the market also led to a serious vehicular traffic on the main access roads of the market, which made impeded the free movement of people in the market.
As others were busy buying foodstuffs and toiletries, others were also in a long queue to fill their gas cylinders for the said days of the lockdown of Greater Accra.
Most people in the queue waiting for their turn to fill their cylinders complained about how everyone was just in a rush to fill his or her cylinder which had resulted in a queue even though they were aware the stations would still be working during the shutdown.
GNA