Nine Foreign Traders Arrested, Goods Confiscated for Violating National Clean-Up Order at Kotokuraba Market | Discuss Ghana

The strict legislative mandate governing the national post-flood sanitation sweep has been heavily enforced in the Central Region, sending a clear, zero-tolerance warning to the business community. Cracking down hard on municipal insubordination, the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly (CCMA) task force, backed by local police, has arrested nine Nigerian traders and confiscated their entire retail merchandise for illegally opening their shops during the National Two-Day Clean-Up Exercise.

The swift enforcement operation took place on Friday morning, July 10, 2026, at the ultra-modern Kotokuraba Market in Cape Coast. While the regional administration had issued clear, multi-tier directives ordering an absolute freeze on all commercial trading hubs until 12:00 noon to guarantee maximum participation in desilting clogged canals, these select shop owners allegedly chose to bypass the civic order. They kept their roller shutters open for early morning trade, triggering a rapid, uncompromised raid by city guards.

The Anatomy of a Enforcement Takedown

The task force's sweep across the market corridors was explicitly designed to show that public safety laws apply equally to all merchants, regardless of nationality:

The Defiant Trading Block: During a routine monitoring patrol led by the Metropolitan Environmental Health Officer, the nine foreign nationals were caught actively serving customers and displaying products while local Ghanaian traders were actively digging out silt from the market’s primary drainage lines.

Immediate Cargo Confiscation: Moving with high-velocity precision, city guards immediately seized multiple boxes of provisions, cosmetics, and electronic accessories from the offending stalls, loading them onto assembly trucks as evidence.

The Legal Backing: The CCMA has formally processed the suspects under the revised Local Governance Act and municipal sanitation bylaws. The assembly clarified that the traders will remain in custody and face stiff financial penalties before their confiscated inventory can be released back to their control.