Three Volta Region communities stage protest over bad roads
Residents of three traditional areas in the Ho Municipality have staged a joint demonstration to protest against bad roads in their communities.
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The demonstrators from Kpenoe, Takla and Hodzo have called on the government to construct a 20-km road to link the three communities to the regional capital.
In a petition to President John Dramani Mahama, the leader of the group, Mr Jones Justus Kumah, said the communities had not seen any improvement in the condition of the roads 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 had appealed to the appropriate authorities for assistance but had not received any positive response.
The demonstration
The protesters marched through some principal streets from the Ho Barracks bridge to Dome-Market road holding placards with inscriptions such as ‘No road no vote’, ‘Our road, no more promises’, and Mr President, please come to our aid.” The over 600 angry youths threatened to boycott the elections because they had been neglected for far too long.
‘We have been neglected. Just empty promises that the road has been awarded on contract and a contractor will commence work next week,” Mr Kumah said and added that the phrase ‘next week’ had become a cliché on the lips of the appropriate authorities’.
Difficulties
He said he was sad that the communities went through a lot of difficulties both in the rainy and dry seasons and that “no matter how clean and presentable you are before setting off on our roads, you become brown and very dirty due to dust, aside the health implications.”
Some people, he said, including pregnant women, had lost their lives on the road because drivers were unable to speed to rush people in critical conditions to the hospital.
He said a journey to the regional capital, which should take about 15 minutes, currently took hours because of the deplorable nature of the road.
Investment opportunities
Mr Kumah said if the roads were fixed, more investors would be attracted to create jobs for the youth because in spite of the very poor nature of their roads, they could boast of the presence of Karltech Ventures, a company that is into mass production of starch, ethanol, flour and brewing of beer.
“We want to feel and actually experience the ‘changing lives, transforming Ghana agenda’ else the combined voter population of 11,000 from the three areas would not partake in the elections,” he said and added that that would be a situation that would adversely affect the chances of the party in government in this year’s polls.
The petition was received by the Ho Municipal Chief Executive, Mrs Fafa Adinyira, who assured the demonstrators that their petition would be delivered to the President for prompt consideration.