Ho residents demonstrate over bad roads
Some residents of three traditional areas in the Ho municipality of the Volta Region have jointly staged a demonstration to protest against bad roads in their area.
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The demonstrators, numbering about 600, threatened to boycott the upcoming elections should government fail to construct a 20 kilometre road that linked the three communities to the regional capital, Ho.
Demonstrating through some principal streets from the Ho Barracks bridge to the Dome-Market road, the demonstrators held placards with inscriptions such as ‘No road no vote’, ‘Our road, no more promises, Mr . President, please come to our aid’.
In a petition to President John Dramani Mahama, the leader of the group, Mr. Jones Justus Kumah stated that the communities had not seen any improvement on the road that connected them to the regional capital, a situation which made it difficult for farmers to transport their farm produce to the market.
According to him, they have called on appropriate quarters for assistance but have not received any positive response.
‘We have been neglected, just empty promises that the road has been awarded and a contractor will commence work next week making ‘next week’ a cliché on the lips of authorities involved’ Mr. Kumah said.
He lamented that the communities go through a lot of difficulties both in the rainy and dry seasons stressing that ‘no matter how clean and presentable you are before setting off on our road, you become brown and very dirty due to unbearable dust aside the health implications’.
Some people including pregnant women have lost their lives on the road because drivers were unable to speed up to rush people in critical conditions to the hospital.
With a good road, he said a journey to the regional capital should last about 15 minutes however they spent more hours on the road.
‘We are therefore petitioning the government to fix the 20 kilometre road for us which will open up our communities and even Togo to the Volta regional capital because we are very close to Togo and therefore will boost the economic and social activities’, he said.
Mr. Kumah said if the road is fixed, it would attract more investors to create job for the youth because despite the very poor nature of their road, they could boast of Karltech Ventures, a company in mass production of starch, ethanol, flour and brewing of beer.
‘We want to feel and actually experience the changing lives, transforming Ghana agenda’ else we will not vote in the coming election and that he said with a population of 11,000 will affect the government chances of winning the elections.
Assurance
The petition was received by the Ho Municipal Chief executive, Mrs Fafa Adinyira who assured the demonstrators that their concerns would be delivered to the President for prompt consideration.
