Kumasi city guards step up performance

Following threats by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), Mr Kojo Bonsu, to sack about 250 city guards for allegedly extorting monies from traders and for non-performance, the guards have since injected new life into their work and are going about seizing merchandise from traders who sell in unapproved places in the metropolis.

Operators of public transport, commonly called ‘trotro’, who until now picked up passengers randomly and as such created confusion and disorder in the city, have been brought to book resulting in orderliness on the streets of Kumasi. The prevailing situation, ironically, has left passengers stranded in parts of the city, particularly at Kejetia.   

Perhaps to prove to the CEO of the KMA that they were reformed and up to the task of keeping order in the city, the guards, clothed in green shirts over green trousers, are now resolute and go about confiscating the wares of traders who are deemed to have fallen out of line. 

A city guard told the Daily Graphic that the unit had embarked on an operation code-named, ‘free the city’ to make Kumasi assume once again the enviable accolade as the ‘garden city of West Africa’.

About two weeks ago, Mr Bonsu, at an emergency meeting of KMA, gave the guards verbal warning to be followed later with a letter of dismissal if the city guards did not live up to expectation.

Meanwhile, a number of city guards are currently undergoing re-training under the charge of a special military force. Those who excel in both fitness and written examination on the assembly's bye-laws would be re-engaged.