Nsakina residents protest over bad roads

Residents of Nsakina in the Ga West Municipality of the Greater Accra region, are fed up with numerous promises to fix the roads in their vicinity.

To register their anger towards those they have placed in position to provide the amenity for them, residents in the area set the roads ablaze Monday morning as part of a demonstration exercise.

Vehicles cannot commute in or out of the centre of the demonstration. Pedestrians who are using the road have to find other side paths to use.

The residents say the roads are so bad that bike riders often fall off the bikes. There is also difficulty in accessing the health facility at neighbouring Oduman, due the nature of the roads.

The residents are peeved with both the Municipal Chief Executive and the Member of Parliament for the area due to promises from both persons that the roads would be fixed.

Prior to the 2016 election, the [then governing] National Democratic Congress (NDC) came to show us pictures of how the roads will be when completed, one of the demonstrators said in Ga.

They, however, haven’t heard from any of them since. The MP, Emmanuel Nii Okai Laryea, however, told Joy News that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is to blame. He said the erstwhile John Mahama-led government began constructing the road but lost power.

“I have made several attempts to get government to fix the road and it’s fallen on deaf ears,” he said. He added that the government’s response to his enquiry on the state of the roads is that it lacked funds to complete it.

Some school children who spoke to Joy News said they always find it difficult to get to school early because commercial vehicle drivers would rather not ply those roads.

“So we have to walk a very long distance before we can get a trotro [commercial minibus],” a Senior High student told, Roland Walker.

A traditional leader in the area who also spoke to the news team confirmed that the demonstration has their full support.

He also added that the exercise will go on for the entire week if they are unable to get the attention of the authorities today.

The police are, however, taken aback. Speaking to the news team, the Amasaman District Police Commander, Sup. Fred Asare Mensah said the police were informed about the intended protest.

He said they engaged the leaders of the demonstration and asked them to exhaust other means like dialogue and if that fails, they can use protest. The people apparently had a made up mind.

“We have met with them and asked them to make sure there’s no destruction of property and that they should maintain peace and make sure no blood flows,” he said.

Source: Myjoyonline