Fix Our Roads Not Sanitary Pads -Dunkwa Residents Appeal To Mahama In Demo

Residents of Dunkwa-On-Offin in the Denkyira East Municipality in the Central Region have sent an SOS message to President John Mahama, to immediately fix the road networks within the locality, since its deplorable state has rendered the community insecured. According to them, the poor road networks, apart from impeding free flow of traffic, were also causing severe damages to vehicles, with the cost of repairs on the rise. That notwithstanding, maternal deaths have increased in the municipality, with plenty foodstuffs said to be trapped in the bush. The cost of doing business is on the rise, with motorists being confronted with highway robbery on daily basis. �Mr. President, the Dunkwa Township, capital of Denkyira, which is now a municipality, has the mother of all manholes and potholes in Ghana, and has not seen any major repairs as seen at other towns and cities. �Out of the total 10km town roads, not even 1km can be said to have been in a good state. In some cases you see the entire stretch of bitumen stripped off, leaving fish ponds, manholes and potholes,� a resident said. �The situation on the Dunkwa town roads and other roads leading to Dunkwa are now getting out of hand and need immediate attention,� noted another resident. They made these observations in an eight-page petition signed and presented to the Coordinating Director of the Assembly, Naa Tadius Zaasan, on behalf of the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mary Ankomah, after embarking on a peaceful demonstration supervised by the Dunkwa District Police Commander, Superintendent Dela Dzansi. Wearing red and black armbands and displaying placards, the demonstrators urged President Mahama to make it a priority to fix their road network, instead of going for loans to purchase sanitary pads for school girls. Some of the placards read� �Toll booth in Dunkwa is useless�; �Pregnant women dying on our roads�; �We need good roads not pad�,�Mr. President; Fix the road not pampers and pads�; �We are part of Ghana � fix our road Mahama�, among many others. The roads the demonstrators were agitating for their immediate rehabilitation are the 25km Obuasi-Dunkwa road, Dunkwa-Praso road, Dunkwa-Awisem, Dunkwa-Buabin, Dunkwa-Opponso, Dunkwa-Kyekyewere and the 10km Dunkwa-Ayanfuri road. The Assemblyman of Ahenfie Electoral Area, Richmond Nii Dodou, who presented the petition to the Municipal Chief Executive, expressed the belief that it was only the President who could help fix the problems in the municipality. The demonstration, which started at exactly 10:00 am was nearly marred by some irate youth who took the law into their own hands and mounted road blocks on the main road that links the central business district. But the barricades were immediately cleared by the men and women in black uniform, led by the District Commander, Supt. Dzansi. Three people were arrested and detained by the police, but they were immediately released after the demonstration had ended, with a warning to be of good behavior during such public events. Supt. Dzansi in an interview with The Chronicle described the demonstration as peaceful and applauded the work of the organizers. On his part, the MP for Upper Denkyira East, Nana Amoako, in a telephone interview said he felt sorry for his people due to government�s neglect of the area. He said several attempts to the Minister of Roads and Highways to help address the problem have fallen on deaf ears, and the Minister kept promising to capture the deplorable roads in the municipality in the 2016 budget. According to him, if the Common Fund had been forthcoming, he would have used his share to hire a grader to make the roads motorable for his people. He expressed the hope that the demonstration exercise carried by the people will receive government�s attention since the situation was impacting negatively on the entire community. When contacted, the MCE, Mary Ankomah, wondered why the organizers of the demonstration still went ahead with the exercise after numerous engagements with them to outline the plans that government had in place to rehabilitate the roads. She described the demonstration exercise as politically motivated and urged the residents to stay calm, as the government had put measures in place to address their plight. The Deputy Minister for Roads and Highways, Isaac Adjei Mensah, when contacted said plans were far advanced to patch the roads within the locality. With regards to the highways (Obuasi-Dunkwa, Dunkwa-Ayanfuri), he said a team of engineers have been dispatched to assess the damage and cost of repairs and submit a report to the ministry for study.