March 24

WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH
DAILY HERITAGE TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2020
03
Accra goes calm
BY PHILIP ANTOH
philip.antoh@dailyheritage.com
THE WHOLE of the nation’s
capital, Accra,
yesterday went calm as
Ghanaians were reacting
to the directives of
the President, Nana Addo Dankwa
Akufo-Addo, to make way for the
disinfestation of market places
throughout the city as a measure of
containing the spread of Covid-19.
The exercise was part of the
measures to ensure that the country
work towards measures to fight
the deadly coronavirus.
The situation was such that
shops across the region were all
locked up with no single trader or
shop owner ready to defy the directives
as fear and panic grip Ghanaians.
Even the banks and other public
offices opened to the public were
not patronized as expected and so
customers and others who went
there for services did not have to
waste the slightest time.
The streets of Accra were virtually
empty as even the busiest
places like Tip-toe Lane at Kwame
Nkrumah Circle went quiet with
the absence of its heavy human
traffic.
Traffic flow was smooth as
people travelling from Kasoa
in the Central Region to the
national capital’s centre said
they had to spend only 30 minutes
as against the two or more
hours they had been spending
before yesterday.
Interviews conducted by the
DAILYHERITAGE revealed
that pedestrians movement
along the streets were
easy except that some of them
could not find food to buy.
Some passengers also said it
took long time for drivers to
get appreciable number of passengers
for them to make a trip
but the absence of traffic made
their trips fast and therefore
appreciable.
Some of them said “we
hope the situation will remain
“I was at the Pension House to
apply for an introduction letter to
support my application for a loan
from my bankers and within 10
minutes, yes 10 minutes, the young
lady who served me had handed it
to me because there was nobody
there for me to wait for my turn,”....
• Mallam Atta Market in Accra New Town locked to traders and the
public for disinfestation against the coronavirus
this way from now on”.
While some passengers
were happy that there was no
traffic, drivers were complained
that yesterday was worst day of
their career.
“Some of our colleagues
came and left home; others
didn’t come at all and those of
us who are around are facing
problems.
“Passengers are not coming
as expected, we don’t know
how we are going to have our
sales today,” said Mahamadu
Ibrahim, one of the drivers at
Circle said.
Some pedestrians also said
movement was smooth and
healthy because only a few
people moving around and distancing
was okay “but the
problem is that even the chop
bars are closed and food is
hard to come by.”
“I was at the Pension House
to apply for an introduction
letter to support my application
for a loan from my
bankers and within 10 minutes,
yes 10 minutes, the young lady
who served me had handed it
to me because there was nobody
there for me to wait for
my turn,” a visibly happy old
pensioner said when the
DAILY HERTAGE asked
about his mission in town at a
time it was difficult to see old
people around yesterday.
• Even the Tip-toe Lane, one of the busiest marketing
centres in Accra, was quiet
•The usually congested Labadi trotro station near
the Circle overhead had a few vehicles there