The Chief Executive of Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Mr Alfred Oko Vanderpuije, on Thursday rejected calls for his resignation, saying no group of persons or individuals could force him to take any such action.
He was addressing a press conference in Accra in reaction to demands by a group calling itself the Market Women Association of Ghana (MAWAG) for his resignation and the issue of congestion in schools after abolition of the shift system in the metropolis.
On May 5, this year, MAWAG gave Mr Vanderpuije two weeks ultimatum to resign, accusing him of gross inhuman treatment against
more than 15,000 hawkers in the Metropolis as a result of AMA’s decongestion exercise.
Mr Fredrick Oppong, Spokesperson of the group, said if Mr Vanderpuije failed to quit by May 18, the group would embark on a demonstration to protest his continuation in office.
Mr Vanderpuije said: ” I’m not thinking about resignation. I’m focusing on the positive and there is no time to waste on the negative.”
He said hawkers would not be allowed to sell on the pavements and the streets even if he was not at post.
The AMA chief Executive expressed regret at the incidence that resulted in the injury of a hawker by security personnel of the AMA in an attempt to get the hawker off the street.
Mr Vanderpuije appealed to the media to be circumspect in their reportage on issues concerning AMA and activities of its security
personnel,
He said “we will not sacrifice the development of Accra for anymore. Regardless of the Mayor being in-Charge, the standards and
implementation of AMA bye-laws would be upheld”.
He warned that AMA could not allow hawking on the streets stressing that “Hawking is acceptable in the community but not on the
streets. They are destroying all the beautification of the city, causing traffic congestion”.
Mr Vanderpuije said the Metropolis had about 39 markets most of which were virtually empty and pledged the commitment of AMA to enforce its bye-laws without fear or favour.
“As a nation, we need to rise above pettiness and move forward.
We have a lot of programmes coming up to tackle indiscipline in the metropolis”.
On the congestion in schools after abolition of the shift system, Mr Vanderpuije said the situation existed before the abolition and noted that some schools had about 110 pupils in a class.
He said the assembly and the Metropolitan Directorate of Education agreed that schools with low enrolment should be merged and a class should not exceed 70 pupils.
Mr Vanderpuije said in the worst scenario, school children pupils should be about 80 in the interim.
He pledged the commitment of the assembly to ensure quality education while the Millennium City School project was completed.
“With abolition of the shift system, AMA did not create congestion. My real focus is education to be placed on a higher pedestal. Quality education is not just about infrastructure but
quality instruction and hence the Millennium City Schools,” Mr Vanderpuije said.
He announced that 30 out of the envisaged 32 Millennium City Schools (each block with 18 classrooms) would be completed by September 2012 to reduce the number of pupils per class from 70 to 40.
Mr Alfred Osei, Metropolitan Director of Education, cited that Kwashieman Two Primary School had 60 pupils in P1, 82 pupils in P2,
107 pupils in P3, 103 pupils in P4, 118 pupils in P5 and 112 pupils in P6 with similar figures at Odorkor.
He said where classes could not merge; rented accommodation was found for the schools while others were housed in temporal structures.
In all 119 classrooms has been hired and 274 temporary structure put up alongside the distribution of 14,000 dual desks to various
schools.
The Millennium City Schools project is expected to permanently solve infrastructure problems.