By: KALD | Voltaonlinegh.com |
Personnel of the Ghana Police Service had a tough time Tuesday morning maintaining law and order during a demonstration by a group of aggrived residents in the South Dayi district against the abandonment of road projects in the area and other parts the Volta region.
The protesters, mostly commercial drivers and traders clad in red defiantly blocked and burnt lorry tyres on the Kpeve section of the Eastern corridor road to drum home their demand for government to as a matter of urgency resume work on the road project, which has stalled for over two years now.
Attempts by the police to clear the road and allow for a smooth flow of traffic through the busy commercial town attracted stiff resistance from the protesters, which nearly turn chaotic.
This, compelled the security personnel to rescind their action, with the situation causing a temporarily halt in traffic flow through the town.
Vehicles traveling from the upper part of the region including Hohoe and Kpando as well as the Oti region to the national capital, Accra and vice versa, were forced to park and wait for the almost an hour and half protest to end before continuing with their trip.
Grievances
According to the demonstrators, the deteriorating nature of the Eastern corridor road as result of its abandonment was adversely impacting their businesses.
A yam trader, lamented about the long hours and in some cases, days she and her colleagues spent on the road carting the produce from Dambai and Kpassa in the Oti region.
“The bad nature of the Eastern corridor road has become a nightmare for us traders, because most drivers are no longer willing to transport our goods and the few who would do so to would charge us exorbitant fares,” the woman added.
An infuriated driver also complained bitterly about how they have to frequently change their vehicle parts as result of the deplorable state of the road.
He even wondered why they should continue paying for roadworthy stickers for their vehicles annual while the some of the roads were not worthy of vehicles.
“Every year we are compelled to pay for road worthy but the roads are also not worthy,” he stated and appealed to President Akufo-Addo to make true his promise to complete the Eastern corridor road project.
The protest which had the backing of the opposition National Democratic Congress in the region, saw in attendance the Members of Parliament for South Dayi and Afadzato South respectively, Mr. Rockson Nelson Defeamekpor and Madam Angela Oforiwa Tay, who accused the New Patriotic Party government of deliberate neglect of the Volta region.
According to Mr. Defeamekpor, the current government was punishing the people of the region by halting almost all road projects initiated by its predecessor.
“A government operates in a single quantum so when a government start a project and is unable to finish and a new person is voted into power to form government, he ought to continue. You don’t come out with a government policy of discontinuation, that’s what the people detest, because the President came to Parliament to tell us that he has ordered all these projects to be audited and because of all these contractual audit, the project should be halted. I blame the Nana Addo administration for this delibrate neglect.”
Mr. Joshua Edem Tetteh convener of the #FixAbandonedVoltaRoad campaign, said the group will continue to agitate untill they see work resume on the abandoned projects.
Source: www.voltaonlinegh.com
