Nana Addo did not prioritise Adenta footbridges completion - NDC MP

A former Roads and Highways Minister and Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, has said there have been misinformation about the Adenta-Madina Highway footbridges.

He disclosed that between July-August 2016, the contractor who was working on the footbridges was paid some substantial amount. He was speaking to Kwame Tutu on Frontline on Rainbow Radio 87.5fM.

The legislator told the host that, the only thing left for the completion of the project was the access to the footbridges (stairways).

The former minister said his difficulty he is having with the ruling government is their inability to complete the project because it did not form part of their priority areas adding, until the increasing deathS and accidents on the highway, the completion was not a priority area of government.''

Alhaji Inusah Fuseini said, "if government had wanted to complete the Adenta footbridges, it would have done so because it had money to complete the project.’’

When asked if the main contractor, China Water should have been made to complete the work, he answered in the affirmative.

"The contract was not terminated and so we are yet to see the nature of the contract. Will the old contractor bring a case against government for terminating the contract? Will government ask the contractor to remove the footbridges so a new contractor is employed to do the work again? The project he noted was supposed to be completed in 24 months after it was awarded in 2006.

“Before I left office, it was only left with the footbridges we had to work on…..we did everything, the only safety mechanism left on the road was to complete the footbridges. This is why am saying that, if government had prioritized the project this wouldn’t have happened because I left all the documents with them and the ministry of highway knows about it.

The contractor was on site working before I left the ministry and so if the contractor had been ordered and facilitated, enabled to go back to site,this death we are experiencing, wouldn’t have happened at all” he said. He added that “The project was part of the “gang of four” which was started by President Kufour. It has no dedicated source of funding……during our time, on yearly basis, we allocate funds for the completion of the project. So I ask, 1st January 2017 to the end, how much was paid to the contractor to go and complete the outstanding work, on 1st January until now, how much was paid to the contractor to go back to site” he questioned.