Hundreds of protestors in the Ga South Municipality have marched on the Mallam-Kasoa highway to protest against the traffic situation that commuters endure on daily basis, which is compounded when it rains.
Organised by Accra FM, owned by Class Media Group, the event had a hash tag – “Fix Kasoa Highway.”
The demonstrators converged at the Tuba taxi rank and marched from 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.
Some of the protestors displayed placards with inscriptions like: “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.” and “King Promise do something before you go”.
Mainly made up of the youth, drivers and residents of the area, the demonstrators vented out their frustrations as passengers complained over delays in traffic. Drivers also 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, Barrier and surrounding communities, the roads were flooded making it unmotorable and this had claimed lives over the years.
The protestors stopped at some places, 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 bythe 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 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 to, but the Municipal Engineer, Ing Daniel Nii Sowah received it from Ms Elaine Attoh, Convenor of the group. The protestors gave government two-week ultimatum to begin work or they would hit the streets again.
Ing Daniel Nii Sowah received the petition on behalf of the Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Joseph Nyarni and assured them that it would be delivered for onward submission to the President.
Mr Akwasi Addo, a lead person of the protest, who doubles as the central regional correspondent of Metro TV, said many commuters spend productive hours in traffic each day, especially when it rains.
He said that he had personally lost a job opportunity in Accra due to the heavy daily traffic on that stretch.
He called on government to as a matter of urgency fix the problem to mitigate the challenges on the stretch.
By Simon Agbovi
GNA
