Residents of Teshie-Agblizaa in the Greater Accra Region have given the government a three-week ultimatum to resume work on the deplorable Teshie-Aglizaa-Manet road or face their wrath.
According to them, the lack of attention to the road project shows the insensitivity of successive governments to the challenges commuters face using the road.
The 7.5km road connects Teshie Lascala, Aglizaa, Manet estate through to Spintex.
The project was awarded to Malin Investment at a contract sum of GHc62 million but the project stalled after the 2016 election.
In June 2018 the Minister for Roads and Highways said government had paid GHc16 million out of the GHc35 million outstanding balance to the contractor.
He added that the contractor was expected to resume work within six days, but it has been five months since the Road Minister made those commitments, but the road remains the same.
Outraged by this, the residents embarked on a protest on Sunday and gave the government a three-week ultimatum to fix the road or face their wrath.
One of the protesters, Prosper Tindani, told Citi News that “the Roads Minister promised the construction of the road on June 8, 2018, we are in November, and not even single gravel has been seen on sight.”
“We, therefore, call on the Roads Minister to apologize to the good people of Teshie for the lies and deceit. Should the government fail to find a solution to the issues raised after three weeks, we will activate further actions until the government listens to us,” he added.
Some residents of Teshie Aglizaa also expressed their frustrations to Citi News.
“The drivers are always complaining. Almost every time they are going to the shops,” he added.
Meanwhile, Citi News understands that the road is receiving facelift after the protest.
Contractor demands GH¢25m to finish work on Teshie-Lascala road
The Chief Executive Officer of Malin Investment, the firm engaged in constructing the Teshie-Lascala road, Francis Kpelu, in February 2018 said work on the 7.5-kilometer stretch stalled because the government has not paid monies owed the company.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show at the time, Mr. Kpelu said his firm had completed work on over 30% of the project but stopped in 2016 because four of the five certificates he sent to the government for payment, totaling GH¢25 million had not been honored.
“Since we started this road, we raised certificate number one, two, three, four and five. It was the only number one that was honored by the government.
“As I’m talking to you, we have outstanding payments from number two, three, four and five, totalling GHc25 million. The question is, if a local person wants to do something to support the whole country, should we be treated this way? Over one year now, the road because they’ve not paid us, we have also not been working,” the contractor added.
Francis Kpelu added that because work on the project had stalled for so long, most of the most of the progress they made had eroded “so you will think that nothing has been done, which means that a lot of money will be required to re-fix the road.”
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By: Godwin A. Allotey & Anass Seidu | citinewsroom.com | Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin
