Ms Gertrude Ankrah (left), the Ga North MCE, responding to concerns raised by Nii Aflah Kakaban I (right) the Chief of Tantra Hills

Ga North residents express worry over inadequate security

Porcia Oforiwa Oforiwa Politics Sep - 21 - 2018 , 10:09

Residents within the Ga North municipality in Accra have expressed worry over inadequate security within parts of the municipality and have called on the government to come to their aid.

According to the residents, they were alarmed by the rampant cases of robbery and the snatching of bags in the municipality by motor riders, with women mostly being victims.

Meanwhile, their road networks and lack of street lights had also become a threat to the lives of the people.

A visit to some parts of the municipality after a slight rainfall revealed the bad nature of the roads coupled with erosion and floods, making it dangerous for motorists and schoolchildren who used the road alone.

Security

When the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of the Ga North Municipal Assembly, Ms Gertrude Ankrah, toured the municipality last Wednesday, a Chief at Tantra Hills, Nii Aflah Kakaban I, called on the MCE to help provide maximum security, including street lights, especially at Tantra Hills.

He explained that although there was one police post in the area, its services were inadequate due to the nature of the post, as well as the lack of facilities to aid their services.

"We are confronted with robbery and snatching of bags and although we are trying to arrange for a police patrol for the safety of the people, we are calling on the assembly to also help to restructure our police post in order for the police to offer quality services to the people in the municipality," he said.

Nii Kakaban I also called on the MCE to construct the roads and the drains in order to prevent flooding when it rains.

He raised the issue of Tantra Hills not having a public-owned clinic but private hospitals and called for the assembly to build a clinic in the area. He pledged his support towards the development of the municipality.

Response

Responding to the issues raised, Ms Ankrah encouraged the chief and his elders to be security conscious themselves while the assembly looked at ways to address the issue.

She urged them to start a community workshop to engage the youth so that they could complement the work of the police in the future when they were put into mainstream policing.

“I will advise them to start organising themselves as a community to take responsibility of their own security because that is always the best way to start with. They should also build the youth into being security conscious or neighbourhood watch committees, because if they are pushed into the mainstream community policing, they would be brought back to support,” she added.

For the street lights, she said the assembly was organising some for the various areas, adding that some had already been fixed at Pokuase.

Other places

At Ofankor, the elders at the palace also complained about their road networks and the drainage system, calling on the MCE to critically address the issue of poor roads in the area.

Ms Ankrah said after scouting the municipality, she realised that the municipality had only five tarred roads and saw how challenging it was for the residents to use the roads.

“In this municipality we have just about five or six tarred roads and when you want to tackle it, they mostly fall under Urban Roads.

Sometimes you feel you have to do it at once for them but you try and you are unable to. Together with an engineer, we will take a look at the roads and see and what can be done, so that with those that we can help construct, we will do it. For the roads that are under other jurisdictions, we will push for them to be fixed,” she said.