I Withdraw My Statement – Kumasi Mayor Backtracks on Pledge to ‘Lash’ Law-breaking Traders

The Mayor of Kumasi, Richard Ofori-Agyeman Boadi, has withdrawn his pledge to physically assault traders who flout rules about not selling on pavements or roadsides in the municipality.

Boadi, in an interview with Atinka FM following his statements sparking a backlash, offered to withdraw the statements and affirmed he does not plan to attack anyone.

The recently sworn-in Kumasi mayor sparked a firestorm after declaring during a press conference that in his quest to sanitize the city, traders who flout the law about selling in unauthorized areas would be caned.

According to him, arresting traders only for them to bail themselves out and come back to the streets was a waste of time and resources. He announced a new plan to move with a group of associates with canes who will ‘lash’ any trader they meet flouting the law.

“I don’t want the situation where we’ll arrest people, they’ll go to the police station and find their own means back to the street. That will be a waste of time,” Boadi said, addressing a shocked media gathering. “I have my own democratic military style…when we say leave this place and you don’t leave this place…and I’m there with my ten boys and their whips, trust me, we’ll beat you.”

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His comments elicited support from many social media users but condemnation from the political and media class.

The minority in Parliament described his statements as a dent in Ghana’s democratic principles.

“Violence, threats of physical abuse, and the use of fear as a governance tool are unacceptable in any form and have no place in a constitutional democracy like ours,” said a statement signed by Francis Asenso-Boakye, the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Local Government and Rural Development Committee. Ace media personality Kwesi Pratt Jnr called for his sacking, and Amnesty International Ghana condemned his rhetoric for undermining the rule of law.