Boxer, 14 others arrested for improper waste disposal, open defecation

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has arrested 15 people for dumping refuse at unauthorised places and indulging in open defecation contrary to Section 56(a) and (b) of Act 851, Public Health Act (2012).

Among the offenders arrested for dumping waste at unauthorised places were Rebecca Barnor Owuah, 46, a sanitation worker under the Sanitation Model of the Youth Employment Agency supervised by Zoomlion Ghana Limited and Akuley Tagoe, 25, a Trader. 

The rest, who were arrested for open defecation, were Bright Ayala, 25,  a boxer with the Wisdom Academy Gym at Jamestown,  Suleman Yakubu, 56,  a scrap dealer,  Robert Quartey 52 years, Nii Quaye Isaac, 37, a driver,  Abdul- Rashid Ayuba, 37, and a carpenter,   Fuseini Alhassan.

Others were 31-year-old head porter,  Ebenezer Nyarko, 26, a coconut seller,  Asamoah Dennis,  39, unemployed,  Jesse Bills ,27, unemployed, Kwaku Jacob ,20,  a staff of Sikkens,  Kwame Ametordzi, 30 years unemployed,  Ayetey Ayequaye, 40, unemployed and  Adu-Gyamfi Bismark , 32, a labourer. 

The offenders, who were arrested between the hours of 4:00 am and 6:00 am at different locations within the Central Business District of Accra, according to the Head of the Environmental Health Department of the AMA, Florence Kuukyi, would be made to sign a bond and pay the cost of abatement or risk court action. 

Touching on the issue of open defecation, she stressed that the drains and open spaces were not places to attend nature’s call, adding that it was against the AMA’s sanitation bye-laws. 

“Open defecation leads to contamination of water sources and food…This can also cause typhoid fever, diarrhoea and cholera, this is why according to the bye-laws, every household must have a ‘place of convenience’ or ‘toilet’ and if it’s absent in a home, its occupants should visit the public toilets,” she said. 

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She used the opportunity to call on all residents and households to patronise the household toilet facilities being constructed by the assembly. 

She warned that the Assembly had intensified its enforcement exercise and would not countenance any breach of the assembly’s bylaws on sanitation, and food safety.