It was Tuesday evening; he had gone to visit his mother at Sakora, a surburb of Accra.
Whilst he was returning, he met his untimely death after a speeding vehicle knocked him down.
This is how Nicklass Asante, lost his only brother on the Adentan-Madina Highway – the road which has now become a death trap for many road users in Accra because of its uncompleted footbridges.
[contextly_sidebar id=”RS201x6ZDbcpweaX4pCFjoU2AVOBGWFY”]On Thursday, there was chaos on the main Madina-Adentan highway as residents blocked the road after a vehicle knocked down another pedestrian on that stretch.
For Nicklass, he is yet to come to terms with the demise of his 32- year old brother at a time when his girlfriend was pregnant.
Over a hundred people are said to have been knocked down on the stretch since the beginning of 2018, due to the lack of footbridges and faulty traffic lights.
Nicklass recounted what may be described as a tragedy on the Citi Breakfast Show on Friday.
“On 31st July, my brother was crossing the road from Sakora. At the kenkey junction, a car hit him and he died. By the time I got to the hospital after ten minutes, he was dead. It was a private Ford Escape vehicle that knocked him down about 7:30pm. The driver said he didn’t see him, by the time he realized, my brother was close to him so he hit him.”
“My brother was coming from Sakora where our mother lives. He had gone to visit our mother when he alighted from a taxicab at the Kenkey Junction. He was crossing from the Kenkey Junction to the other side of the road where the Goil filling station is, he disclosed.
According to Nicklass, the situation has been difficult for him to bear.
He had lost his only blood brother in a manner that could have simply been prevented.
This leaves him with nights full of dreams about his late sibling.
“I dream about my brother every night, he was my only brother. You should see my mother now, she weeps. I know what families are going through because I am going through it. I know what they are feeling. We are only two boys; he was my only brother so it has been tough for me. “
Unprepared docket
Nicklass also mentioned that, since the incident occurred, the family has been going to the court on countless occasions because the police have failed to prepare a docket to bring finality to the matter.
“The docket of my brother has still not been prepared. The police at Adenta tell me that there are a lot of similar cases that have their dockets not prepared. So we have been going to court for the past three months.”
Resident’s protest
Residents who use the highway on a daily basis have been protesting the lack of footbridges on the road saying they will embark on a demonstration next week.
This move, according to Nicklass, is long overdue since steps he personally took after the death of his brother had yielded no results.
“The number of people who have died on the road and the amount of time spent on activism is incredible. Personally after my brother died, I was at many media houses speaking on the need for the bridges to be fixed but there has been no action.”
Nicklass believes the protests and the intended demonstration are the only surest ways to tell the appropriate authorities that they are angry enough.
He therefore applauded Thursday’s spontaneous protests by residents after a student of the West Africa Senior High School was knocked down and killed.
“People are very angry. We are tired of complaining. Yesterday’s incident was a perfect event. It was just unfortunate that someone had to die again. “
–
By: Nii Larte Lartey | citinewsroom.com |Ghana