Minister was dishonest claiming Accra is 85% clean – Suhuyini

Member of Parliament for Tamale North, Alhassan Suhuyini, has said Sanitation Minister, Cecilia Abena Dapaah was dishonest after claiming that the government was 85 per cent through to making Accra the cleanest city in Africa.

He revealed that filth has engulfed most parts of the city and there are also not enough bins around, a situation he said defeats the remarks of the minister.

In 2017 President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo declared his government’s intention to make Ghana’s capital City the cleanest on the continent by the end of his first term in Office.

Speaking to the media as part of a sanitation tour and cleanup exercise in parts of Maamobi in Accra, on Tuesday August 11, the sanitation minister revealed that 100 per cent was achieved during the lockdown period in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic. But she said after the restrictions were lifted, the dirt started emerging.

“When we don’t do these things, throw garbage into the drains the drains will be clearer, neater and our homes also will be clean because the Assembly will send the Abobyaa’s (tricycles) round to pick the waste that is what we want. We endorse the one house one bin policy.”

Regarding the grading efforts to make Accra the cleanest city she said, “I will give it 85 per cent because at the end of the day you saw the 100 per cent we did during the lock down.”

But speaking on the New Day programme on TV3 Thursday August 13 with host Johnnie Hughes, the Tamale North MP said : “This is dishonesty because you move around and bins are not even everywhere.”

“The heaps of rubbish in our community is growing,” he added.

He said the president should be blamed for this development.

“The responsibility of the president is to go beyond the briefs he is given. In such instances, you don’t even need brief if you are a president who has his eyes on the ball,” he said.

Meanwhile head of Communications and Public Affairs at the Energy Ministry, Nana Kofi Oppong Damoah, said some work have been done to make the city the cleanest although there is still more work to be done.

“The Minister didn’t say we have achieved the highest of marks, she said there is still some work to be done

“A lot of work has been done, there is still some work to be done and we must all make the effort and so trying to politicise this takes us from the main issues.”