Residents embark on Fix Kasoa Highway protest
Hundreds of protestors in the Ga South Municipality have marched on the Mallam-Kasoa highway to protest the traffic situation commuters endure on daily basis which is compounded when it rains.
Organized by Accra FM of the Class Media Group, the event had a hash tag “Fix Kasoa Highway.”
The demonstrators converged at the Tuba taxi rank and marched on the highway to Barrier where it submitted a petition to authorities of the Assembly.
They blocked both sides of the road from Accra to Kasoa and vice versa leading to a heavy traffic for more than two hours as they displayed placards with inscriptions “Drop The Cathedral And Fix Kasoa Highway,” “We Are No More Spectators, Fix Kasoa Roads,” “The IMF Money Can Fix Kasoa Highway,” “Families dey chop Ghanaians dey die, save our lives” and “King Promise do something before you go”.
Mainly made up of the youth, drivers, and residents the demonstrators vented out their frustrations as passengers complained over delays in traffic, drivers lamented over burning of fuel and frequent maintenance of their vehicles due to the bad nature of the roads.
At Tuba, heaps of mudslide of erosion from a hill which had settled on the road, right after the tollbooth towards broadcasting all in the Ga South municipality resulted in a heavy traffic.
Portions of the road had developed huge potholes because of the mudslide, caused by sand winning activities in the area.
At Bortianor, Ayigbe Town to Barrier and its surrounding communities the roads were flooded making it unmotorable and this had claimed lives over the years.
The protestors stopped at vital spots including the office of the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Constituency, Mr Sylvester Mensah Tetteh and demanded to see him but met his absence.
A swift intervention of the police prevented the demonstrators from vandalising his office.
Minutes after, there was a clash between the demonstrators and an anti-landguard squad of the Ghana Police Service, which the demonstrators claimed were called in by the MP for the area.
They said, Road Minister, Mr Kwasi Amoako-Atta, had visited the area together with engineers from the Municipal Assembly, Roads and Highway Department and the Ministry but had since not been attended to.
They had demanded the presence of the Road Minister or the MCE to submit their petition but the municipal engineer, Ing Daniel Nii Sowah received it from Ms Elaine Attoh, convenor who gave government two-week ultimatum to begin works or they would hit the streets again.
He received the petition on behalf of the Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Joseph Nyarni and assured them that the petition would be delivered for onward submission to the President.
Mr Akwasi Addo, a lead person who doubles as the central regional correspondent of Metro TV said many commuters spent productive hours in traffic each day especially when it rained.
He said that he had personally lost a job opportunity in Accra due to the daily heavy traffic on that stretch.
He called on government to as a matter of urgency fix the problem to mitigate the challenges on the stretch.
Source: GNA