Lives have been lost as a result of the terrible nature of the roads
An abrupt withdrawal of Queiroz Galvão from an ongoing reconstruction work on the Bolgatanga-Bawku-Pulmakon Road — an international motorway that links Ghana to its ECOWAS neighbours — has sparked widespread agitations in the Upper East region.
Millions of teeth have been set on edge as drivers, passengers and eyewitnesses tell fresh tales of horror and terror in connection with the collapsed state of that 116-kilometre-long highway and the suspension of the project 17 months into a job scheduled to take 30 months to complete.
The Brazilian construction giant, well known in Ghana for building the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange and upgrading the Tamale International Airport among other notable projects, reportedly withdrew its machines from site near Bawku last week, citing government’s failure to pay for a chunk of the work done so far as basis for the pullout.
Starr News sighted a ghastly photograph of a pregnant woman who died on a referral trip through that road whilst in labour. Doctors said she could have made it had the road been smooth. The disturbing picture shows her lifeless body bleeding on a hospital floor, half covered in a blood-soaked local fabric, her eyes partly opened and both legs stained from the thighs to the feet with streaks of blood.
Armed robbery gangs, ever since the reconstruction process started in July last year, have intensified their ambush on that road, making it the region’s most dangerous flashpoint as they take advantage of traffic diversions to launch deadly attacks on vehicles. A number of travellers have died from bullet wounds and passengers in many instances have fled into nearby bush at an enhanced speed, leaving their belongings behind, after faceless bandits appeared from the surrounding forests and opened fire.
Men wear ‘hijabs’ on Bolga-Bawku Road
Thieves also do target cargo trucks around the extremely potholed portions of the road. They sneak into the cargo space at the time the trucks are in a slow motion around the potholes and, once they manage to lift the cover without anybody’s notice, they begin to offload the goods onto the road whilst the trucks are moving.
There was a drama on that road some time ago when a cutlass-wielding truck driver managed to capture one of the shoplifters, stripped him and tied his neck to the truck with intent to drag him on the bumpy road. Begging desperately for his life, the “thief” told an angry crowd the engine of the truck told him to unload the goods.
And it is probably only on that road in all of Ghana that wearing of hijab is not the preserve of Muslim women. Men — both Muslims and non-Muslims— who intend to travel through that highway, especially on the usually rickety commercial buses, consciously take casual veils along from home and don them at the lorry station in a ‘hijab’ style to contain the inevitable dust storms on the way. The King of the Kusaug Kingdom, Naba Asigri Abugrago Azoka II, is quoted to have once said, “Each time I receive an invite to a function that demands I use that road, that night I don’t sleep.”
There were no men at work when Starr News checked through the road both Friday and Saturday, last week. The Chief Resident Engineer for the project, Francis Hammond, said the company had decided to slow down work.
“Slowdown means that if you are working with ten bulldozers, maybe [the company is] now working with four,” he told Starr News on the telephone. He would not confirm whatever prompted the “slowdown”.
Kusaug Youth Give Government 1 Week to Pay Contractor
Whilst residents across the region were seeking answers to the sudden disappearance of the contractor, there was a heavy outpouring of grief at the weekend in the Bawku West District where former President John Dramani Mahama cut the sod in July, 2016, for reconstruction work to begin on that motorway at a contract sum of Gh¢612 million.
A group of natives who identified themselves as the “Concerned Kusaug Youth” held a news conference, asking government to settle the arrears owed the construction firm within one week or face their “wrath”.
“Following the 2016 polls and subsequent change in government, many citizens expressed fears about the fate of this project under our new President, His Excellency Nana Akufo Addo. Indeed, there were claims and assertions suggesting that the contract was reviewed downward in terms of form and structure and many amenities contained in the original design were removed. Our sources indicate that the contractor has raised a total of thirteen certificates so far but has only received a paltry amount from the government paid in March, 2017.
“This road is one of the most important roads in the country, given its economic viability and the number of lives that depend on it for survival. We are, therefore, at a complete loss as to why government feels that we do not deserve a top-quality project. We demand the immediate release of funds from government to get the contractor back to site. On this note we wish to state that government should sort the contractor out within the coming week or face our wrath,” said the spokesperson for the group, Jarvis Avoka.
500 Workers “Dismissed”
According to the group, some 500 people engaged by the construction firm have been laid off as arrears owed the company remain unsettled. “Clearly frustrated by government’s feet-dragging attitude and show of no-commitment to the project, Queiroz Galvão, the main contractor, having completed about 40km of the 110 km stretch, has resorted to halt work, citing huge arrears owed suppliers.
Three hundred employees were dismissed on Monday and only yesterday an additional 200 employees were dismissed, representing close to 90% of employees. As we talk now, 95% of equipment on site have now been moved to the company's yard at Binguri directly opposite the Binduri District Assembly,” Mr. Avoka stated amid sighs of grief from members of the group. Among the agitators were women who shared with newsmen the ordeal they endured on that road whilst pregnant.
“The nature of the road has affected some of us,” complained a distressed-looking teacher, Thelma Irene Akurugu. “Personally I remember I nearly lost a pregnancy moving from Bolga back to my destination here. Most women have also suffered the same fate. Some have lost their pregnancies. Some have even been attacked by armed robbers.”
Whilst Musah Mohammed Avole lamented the risks the condition of the road posed to babies and asthmatic travellers, Francis Nasara decried the timing of the contractor’s pullout as “very bad”.
“Even the timing for the halting of this project is very bad. We have Christmas about one month away. These are times that accidents do occur most often through bad roads. I don’t know whether it is the intention of government to reduce our numbers through accidents,” Mr. Nasara fumed.
The road, according to Samuel Alaam, another member of the group, poses a security threat “as so many lives have been lost as a result of accidents [and] people are maimed [owing to] armed robbery activities”.
“The focus of this press conference is for government to release funds for the contractor to get back to site and for those dismissed to regain their jobs. As far as we know, the funds are available,” Yussif Otumba, one of the conveners of the confab, stressed with a tone of frustration.
Meanwhile, Deputy Attorney General and Member of Parliament for Tempane, Joseph Dindiok Kpemka, has told journalists arrangements are being made to release funds so the contractor may return to site.
“The Regional Minister told me that the contractor was threatening to pull out because he hadn’t been paid for some time. In fact, I’m aware that when this government came, he was paid two certificates. But he (the contractor) said that where he has reached he needs money from the certificates that have been sent. I spoke to the Minister for Roads [and Highways]. I can assure you there is a commitment to release some money for him to continue,” the lawmaker said.
