Fix our killer roads - Residents tell Albert Abongo

Residents of the Upper East region have appealed to the new regional minister Albert Abongo to fix the terrible roads that have bedeviled the region for decades.

Pouring out their expectations to Starr News at the arrival of the minister Monday, the residents also asked the veteran lawmaker to help reduce maternal deaths and reverse the tumbling standards of education in the region.

“I’m expecting the new Regional Minister to do two things. If those things are fixed, I would be very grateful. The roads? especially Bolga-Bawku Road, Bolga-Bongo Road. They are the roads that are going rotten. If the minister can fix those roads, I would be very grateful. Quite apart from that, the health sector, especially the maternity side. A lot of women and children are dying there,” Ignatius Ayine Amoah said.

Another resident, Samuel Adongo, demanded: “There are some senior high schools that are not completed. I’m expecting him to see what he can do to help and build the schools. And the roads, it’s a problem. You can see that even today, a car had an accident. The roads are totally poor. He should see what he can do to tar all the roads.”

Mr. Abongo’s convoy entered the regional capital, Bolgatanga, at about 6:00pm. Supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), led by government appointees and party executives in the region, made a joyful noise as they made their way slowly to the official residence of the minister amid tooting of horns of cars and motorcycles and blaring of police siren on the highway.

Children and adults lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the new minister who came out from the roof of his car to wave at the crowd.

Addressing the crowd, Mr. Abongo, who is the Member of Parliament for Bongo, promised to put the poor roads back in good shape.

“The Bolgatanga-Bawku Road will be started soon. Next month, it will be started. We will cut the sod. Bongo Road will be finished. A lot of the roads will be done, let me give you that assurance. The Bolgatanga Township roads will all be asphalted,” the Regional Minister assured.

Taking his turn to speak to the multitude, the Upper East Regional Chairman of the NDC, Alhaji Mumuni Bolnaba, warned the new Regional Minister against running an administrative style that could affect the party’s chances as Ghana prepares for the November 2016 polls.

Mr. Abongo, a civil engineer, has remained an MP since he took over from Simon Alangde Asabo in 2001. He was the Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing one time in the government of the late President John Evans Atta Mills. Born at Gowrie in the Bongo District in 1959, two years after Ghana gained independence from colonial control, Mr. Abongo has three children and he is regarded as a “strong pillar” of the NDC in the Bongo Constituency.