The residents of Okine Jata in the Ablekuma West Constituency have promised to give Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) a hostile reception if she dared campaign in the area as the election season approaches.
This was in reaction to a recent re-tarring of the road in front of her home, at the expense of others in even more deplorable conditions and requiring urgent attention.
The residents said by her action, she had prioritised her comfort above the pressing needs of the constituents, hence, the outburst.
The Okine Jata Street, just 50 metres away from her home, was so bad that the residents petitioned the Ablekuma West Municipal Assembly (AWMA) in June, this year, for a solution.
But the petition was greeted with the usual chorus of “no resources; our engineers will follow up later.”
A few weeks after that, however, the road in front of the Member of Parliament’s (MP’s) house was re-coated, an action that has incurred the fury of the residents. To them, the tarred road in front of her house could have waited while attention was given to the deplorable Okine Jata road.
The residents say Okine Jata Street is a vital link to Zabrama Line, Shukura, Lartebiokorshie and Banana Inn from the Dansoman High Street and deserved attention.
One of the petitioners, Godwin Sarpong, told The Chronicle that any time it rained his octogenarian mother suffers a lot, as her room gets flooded, and the family spends days to clean up the mud residue in the house.
According to Mr. Sarpong, the situation compelled him and other affected members of the community to send a petition to the Municipal Assembly in June.
Portions of the petition, which he made available to this paper, read: “We, the residents of Akine Jata Close in Dansoman, write to express our frustration at the state of our street, and respectfully petition the Abiekuma West Municipal Assembly to address our problem.
“The main drain in the B Opoku curve is choked in front of the Nicky Barbers building and the adjacent house, making it impossible for rain water from the Estates and the B Opoku curve to flow into the big drain at B Opoku Down.
“The situation causes frequent flooding of the untarred Okine Jata Close and people’s homes, and the desperate individual solutions only make things worse,” according to portions of the petition in the possession of The Chronicle.
It continued: “We implore the Assembly to organise a campaign to unblock the drains and grade the Okine Jata Close in a way that would channel water into the drain on the Beecham Road.
“The residents are willing and ready to support the Assembly in ensuring that this neighborhood’s upgrade materialises.”
Another petitioner, Carlton Cofie, told The Chronicle how he organised the neighbours, with funds from the local Pentecost Church, to construct the bridge linking Okine Jata Close and Beecham Road.
Mr. Cofie said some residents, out of frustration, had tried to remedy the situation by packing their entrances with cement blocks, creating a dangerous terrain for the children who love to play football in the street.
