Residents of Kwabenya, a suburb Accra, demonstrated on Tuesday against their Member of Parliament, Sarah Adwoa Safo, for failing to fulfill a promise she is said to have made to fix their roads.
“We’ve had issues with our road since 1996. When Mike Ocquaye was here, he promised to fix it, Adwoa Safo promised to fix the road, but nothing has been done,” one of the residents told Citi News’ Hanson Agyeman.
A member of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union, GPRTU also said, “for a long time, we’ve been promised that the road will be fixed. When Mike Ocquaye was in the district, he promised but nothing was done. At the end of the day, we don’t see what she [ Adwoa Safo] is doing. Nana Addo must understand that in 2020, we will vote against the NPP.”
The convener of the protest, Anderson Adongo, told Citi News that the protesters will send a petition to the Jubilee House.
“This demonstration will go on; we will present a petition to our MP, to the council and to the Jubilee House. We will wait patiently for what response will be given, and then we will decide what to do next.”
Police disperse protesters; arrest convener
The police later arrested the leader of the protest for not notifying the police as specified in the Public Order Act.
Officers from the Kwabenya District Police later dispersed the protesters.
The Commander of the Kwabenya District Police, DSP James Asiedu, said the officers arrested Mr. Adongo because the demonstrators did not inform the police before embarking on the protest.
“In such situations, we must be present and make sure that traffic flows and that no destruction is done and that no one is harmed. If the people fail to inform the police, it means they have a motive and so we won’t sit unconcerned. We have to come and disperse the protesters so that they will go back, reorganize themselves and write to us so we can guide them in their demonstration. This is illegal.”
When asked what action would be taken against the convener, he said, “We will go through the law and see where the convener falls short and move on from there.”
May 2017: Ablekuma drivers protest over bad road
This is not the first time that residents of some communities in Ghana are protesting against bad roads.
On May 30, 2017, commercial drivers at Ablekuma Manhyia, Oduma and Nsakina protested against the bad nature of their roads.
Some of them blocked the main road linking those areas. According to the drivers, the roads had been bad for about ten years.
Chanting “we want roads”, the commercial drivers claimed that the road destroyed their vehicles.
June 2017: Battor residents demonstrate over bad roads
Residents of Battor in the North Tongu District protested on June 14, 2017, over bad roads and demanded the construction of the roads in their area.
The residents said that the roads became unmotorable after heavy rains and that affected education and economic activities.
–
By: Jeffrey Owuraku Sarpong/citinewsroom.com/Ghana