Food vendors in the Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region say they fear for their lives in the wake of recent killings thus leading to a nose-dive in their business activities.
They said they were no longer able to wake up at dawn to prepare meals and display them for sale to consumers, who bought the food very early in the morning for school or work.
Initially, morning meals by these vendors would be ready by 6am for school children and workers to buy, but the vendors who spoke to the Ghanaian Times here on Friday, said they had to delay the time to safeguard their own lives.
“I used to arrive here by 4:00 am to commence cooking so that by 6 am, my meals would be ready. However, I have to come late now because I am scared for my life; as you can see it’s almost 8am and my food is still on fire”,a rice vendor, at the central business district, Aunty Mawusi, lamented
Another vendor around the ministries block at Wa, Abena, said she had to wake up later than usual to get her food ready for consumers due to the fear she had.
“I used to start preparation by 3:00am, but these days I come here around 6:00am, how much do I earn from this trade that I would allow someone to kill me for nothing; my fear is that someone will just pop up from behind me and push my head into the fire and use my body parts for money rituals so I am extra cautious these days, ” Abena stated.
A kenkeyvendor also stated that although she prepared the food at her own home, the business has been affected because she had to dismiss her workers early for the day and also watch them arrive late to work because she could not force them to come to work early.
“Even though I am doing this in my own house, I am still scared for my life, how will I allow someone else to wake up at dawn and come here to work? The lateness is also affecting business but what can we do?, she added.
Ms. Aisha called for a solution to the recent murders and mysterious disappearance of persons in the municipality for life to return to normalcy.
Meanwhile, some other business men are lamenting that should the trend continue, it wouild be difficult to secure investments for businesses in the region.
“I wonder, which business person would invest in a volatile environment, ” the Chief Executive Officer of the Nuoyong Business Empire, Mr Stephen Mwinkaara said.
“We can help the police by taking care of our personal security; if you come to my hotel, I have engaged the services of the police in addition to the private security guards and I have installed CCTV cameras everywhere because we are not in normal times,” he said.
FROM LYDIA DARLINGTON FORDJOUR, WA
