Chiefs call for ritual to end deaths on N1 highway

Some traditional rulers in the Ga State have gravely expressed that more lives will continue to perish on the 14-Kilometer Tetteh Quarshie-Mallam George Walker Bush N1 Highway until the central government under President John Dramani Mahama performs “necessary sacrifices” to appease the gods of the land.

According to them, the infamous George Walker Bush Highway in Accra since its commissioning by former President John Agyekum Kufuor has accounted and continues to account for the loss of several innocent lives and properties.

This unfortunate situation, the Accra chiefs explained, was because former President Agyekum Kufuor's government failed to consult the traditional rulers before the construction of the highway.

According to them, that omission by the Kufuor administration was a show of disrespect for the cultural heritage of Ga State.

“We cannot continue to be silent for lives and properties to continue to be lost on the N1 Highway. The time has come for us to speak and push the current administration to do the right things that would save lives and properties on the N1 highway which is now a death trap,” the traditional leaders of Ga State who pleaded condition of anonymity told Today.

They expressed this concern in an interview with Today when the paper sought their views on the increasing rate of accidents on the Lapaz-Kwashieman stretch of the N1 ahead of this year’s yuletide festivities.

They further expressed fears that many traders along the Abeka-Lapaz stretch of the highway who are doing brisk business would lose their lives in the coming years if trading activities along the 14-kilometre road is not halted.

According to them, most of these imminent deaths are likely to occur on the Lapaz to Kwashieman stretch of the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) funded highway, as business activities on this route is on the rise.

The traditional leaders pointed out that they observed that items sold along this pavement on the Lapaz stretch of the highway include footwear, second-hand electrical gadgets, clothes and foodstuff.

Numbering hundreds, they indicated that the traders who display assorted products by the roadside have been cashing in on pedestrians and road users that ply the highway which runs from Mallam Junction to the Tetteh Quarshie Roundabout.

They said when “outfit asked some of the traders to stop selling on the pavements along the highway “we were shocked to be told by the recalcitrant traders that ”they [traders] have to sell here to make our daily bread and also pay our children’s school fees or they risk being sent home from school.”

The traditional leaders also spoke on the absence of footbridges at vantage points on the highway lamenting that this has also accounted for the loss of more lives and properties since its commissioning by the late President John Evans Atta Mills in February 2012.

Today‘s investigations revealed that not a single week has passed without five or more people being knocked and killed by a speeding vehicle on N1 highway.

Today was reliably informed that the victims of such accidents are either maimed or killed instantly in the process; just a couple months ago, a female Senior High School (SHS) leaver who was crossing the road to board a vehicle, was killed by a salon car.

However, the news of deaths which mostly occur in the full glare of the traders has not deterred them from selling their wares along the sides of the busy highway.