Kpone, Prampram residents demonstrate against abandoned road project

Some residents of Tema Community 25, Dawhenya, and their environs have demonstrated over the abandoned construction works on the 17-kilometre stretch of the Tema Interchange to Miotso Road in the Ningo-Prampram District.

The residents, including taxi drivers and food vendors, embarked on a peaceful demonstration on Friday to register their frustrations and to impress upon the government to urgently compel the contractor working on the road to remobilize and return to the site.

Over 100 residents participated in the demonstration amidst a heavy security presence to ensure law and order.

The protesters, clad in red t-shirts with the inscription “Fix Kpone Barrier and Dawhenya Roads Now,” carried placards, some of which read: “This isn’t Politics, This is People’s Lives,” “Safe Roads, Safe Communities,” “There is Enough Money,” and “Kpone-Dawhenya Roads Also Matter.”

Addressing the media after the demonstration, Mrs. Frana Ayaba Wuni, the organizing secretary of the Dawhenya Residential Association, stressed that the inconveniences residents went through daily were unacceptable.

Mrs. Wuni stated that the abandoned road project was affecting productivity and taking a toll on their health, as commuters had to drive through thick clouds of dust when using the road.

According to her, their efforts to get answers from the Kpone-Katamanso Municipal Assembly (KKMA) and the Ningo-Prampram District Assembly (NiPDA) for the reasons behind the abandoned project yielded no positive results, hence embarking on the demonstration to get their issues across to the central government.

She said the 17-kilometre road served as an international road connecting Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, and other African nations, and that it should be of great concern to the government to facilitate the processes to get the contractors to return to the site to complete the work.

She noted that the traffic on that stretch of road was unbearable, as road users could spend over two hours daily in gridlock.

The abandoned project, when completed, is expected to have double carriageways, with four interchanges at Kpone-Barrier, Savanna, Dawhenya, and Prampram junctions, as well as an emergency route.