Cut MCE “Superior” down to size, he is too big for his breeches, Tamale traders urge President Akuffo.

A group opposed to the policies of the mercurial Tamale Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr. Iddrisu Musah Superior, has asked the president to remove him from office.

The group comprised mainly of traders within the central business district and tricycle operators, popularly called Yellow Yellow, took to the streets of Tamale demanding his removal over certain disciplinary measures put in place by the assembly under his leadership to ensure sanity.

They expressed dissatisfaction with the activities of the assembly task force who are monitoring the behavior of some recalcitrant motorists, and alleged that the task force was extorting money and molesting traders.

They petitioned the President, through the Northern Regional Co-ordinating Council to call the Tamale Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), Mr. Musah to order or they will both, as they put it “wear one leg of a trousers”.

Backed by some concerned youth of the governing New Patriotic Party, the two dissatisfied groups asked the assembly to, with immediate effect, strip the powers of the assembly delegated to the taskforce headed by Mr. Mohammed Hafiz, Dema Naa.

According to them, the MCE has clearly gone overboard with his notion of instilling discipline and sanity in Tamale. They accused him of not creating jobs and yet destroying petty traders’ investments.

In addition, the traders said the Tamale MCE needs to watch his utterances towards the poor and needy if he wants people to believe he is serving. While some called for Mr Superior’s removal, others urged him to mind his own business.

Some of the placards read: “Superior respect the elderly” and “Tamale is Hell with Superior’’ among others. A spokesperson who doubles as the Union Organizer of Yellow Yellow operators in Tamale,  Mr. Amin Abubakari, told Zaa News that the conduct of the assembly’s taskforce is geared towards making the youth jobless, which is the direct opposite of the government’s promise of creating jobs for the youth.

He told Zaa News that the operators have accepted not to transport more passengers than required by and are ever ready to abide by city authorities’ rules and regulations. Mr. Abubakari that the taskforce extorts money from petty traders in the market only to turn around and harass them.

“The assembly has engaged illiterate people to stop motorists from illegal parking and they can’t even differentiate between “No Stopping and No Parking,” it is pathetic” he added.

The Secretary of the concerned NPP youth Abdallah Yahaya presented the petition.
The dissatisfied traders later presented their petition to the deputy northern regional minister, Mr. Solomon Boar, who promised to deliver it to his boss and then onwards to the presidency.

Responding to the petition, the PRO of the Metropolitan Assembly noted that the allegations raised in the petition were misplaced and not true.

Responding to the allegations, the communications manager at the assembly, Mr Aisha Musah flatly rejected the allegations describing them as unfounded and baseless. “It is their democratic right to demonstrate but some of the issues raised are not true,” he added. He explained that the Task Force mandate was clear; no extortion of money and molestation of traders.

He told Zaa News, the assembly has written to the Motor Traffic and Transport Department of the Ghana Police Service (MTTD ) to intensify the inspection and examination of operators of tricycles to curb the issue of criminality in the city, and this was the reason.

He said: “Our reason was that, some four young men used their registered tricycle, picked a woman and raped her somewhere near Kakpayili.”

Party youth anger

Some governing NPP members who backed the traders accused the mayor of playing with the election fortunes of the party they work hard to win in the 2016 elections.

One of the youth, Mr. Abdallah Yahaya, told reporters that the mayor constant refrain of “I brought my job from Accra,” must stop because he is the mayor because the party is in power.