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NPP Member of Parliament for Sekondi, Hon. Andrew Agyapa Mercer has registered displeasure with some commentaries on the relocation of traders and artisans close to the private residence of President Nana Akufo-Addo.

The traders and artisans have been asked to vacate the residence as a matter of national security.

Though the Information Minister Mustapha Hamid, in a statement issued by the Presidency, has indicated that the residents were given a six-week grace period and compensation packages which were given from the President's own resources for them to relocate; critics have raised eyebrows over the treatment meted out to the victims.

With some arguing that the President should rather relocate from his private residence to settle at his Presidential residence provided at the Flagstaff House, other critics believe its an unfair treatment to ask the residents who have lived at the private residence for years before Nana Akufo-Addo was elected as Head of State to relocate.

But Hon. Agyapa Mercer believes the move is the right call because the Nima residence of the President is now a national security zone.

According to him, this is not a case of maltreatment on the part of government because the people cannot continue to live or trade close to the President.

“If government through National Security has engaged them, discussed and negotiated with them and paid them compensation from the President’s resource that they should relocate, should this be an issue?” he questioned.

Making his submissions on Peace FM's Kokrokoo, Hon. Agyapa Mercer indicated that opposition parties together with Ghanaians should rather commend the President that “in all of this, His Excellency the President didn’t incur any costs for Ghana because in fact that is what should have happened. Ghana should have paid for the relocation and compensation of these people but the President, himself, has resolved to use his own money to pay these people”.

In his estimation, President Akufo-Addo "deserves praise not condemnation" as some critics are doing regarding the issue.