Security forces enforced compliance during the national clean-up exercise in the Central Business District (CBD) of the Kumasi Metropolis, compelling traders who attempted to avoid the exercise to participate.

While some residents actively joined the exercise, many traders sought to bypass the mandatory sanitation drive, prompting security personnel to intervene, particularly in the Alabar and Central Market areas.

The response to the clean-up exercise was mixed across the metropolis's major commercial centres.

At Alabar and the Central Market, security personnel, together with officials of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), desilted choked gutters and cleared drainage systems as onlookers watched. Traders who declined to participate were pursued by security officers and directed to assist with the exercise.

Business activities came to a halt in Adum, Achemfuo Market and around the Ellis Building, where most shops remained closed in observance of the exercise.

However, groups of traders were seen loitering outside their shops awaiting the end of the exercise, while some petty traders defied the restrictions by continuing to sell during the clean-up.

At the Kejetia Market, although the facility was temporarily closed, crowds gathered at the main entrance waiting for business activities to resume. In contrast, some traders voluntarily took part in the exercise, using brooms and other cleaning tools to sweep the streets.

Speaking after the exercise, Kumasi Mayor Richard Ofori Agyemang Boadi described the second phase of the national sanitation exercise as a major success.

According to the Mayor, clearing heavily silted drains is a practical step towards addressing the city's persistent flooding challenges.

He also urged traders to act as watchdogs by encouraging their colleagues to comply with future sanitation exercises.

Mr Boadi warned that the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly would no longer tolerate indiscriminate waste disposal and said immediate punitive action would be taken against anyone found littering or dumping refuse unlawfully.