Protesters break through police barricade to storm Shai Osudoku District Assembly over deplorable roads

Correspondence from Eastern Region

Thousands of aggrieved residents from Kordiabe, Ayikuma, Agomeda, Asebi and Dodowa on Wednesday poured onto the streets of the Shai Osudoku District in the Greater Accra Region to rehash an earlier protest staged on June 20, 2023 to drum home the need for government to fix their terrible road network.

The protesters from several communities for the second time in over a month poured onto the streets to register their anger against the situation that continues to adversely impact their socio- economic activities.

The residents, who came out in their numbers, clad in red and black to portray their bitterness about the situation, danced, sang, and displayed placards to back their demand. 

The angry protesters wielded the placards to convey their messages to the government, some of which read, “enough is enough,” “use our rocks to construct our roads,” “the dust is killing us,” “Shai deserves proper roads,” “we breath dust,” “fix our roads before you go, Nana Addo,” etc.

Most roads were blocked during the course of the about five-hour demonstration that was scheduled to end at a designated venue which is some 300 meters from the Assembly where a police barricade was positioned.

Per this arrangement, only the leaders were arranged to go beyond that point to meet with the DCE, Fred Ofei in the assembly to present their petition to him.

Chaos, however broke out when the agitating demonstrators insisted on accompanying the organisers to the assembly grounds to hand over their petition to the District Chief Executive.

In ensuing exchanges, the demonstrators broke through the police barricade into the walls of the Assembly where they accompanied the organisers to hand over their petition to the Chief of the Assembly.

An attempt by Fred Ofei to address the crowd was however met with boos, jeers and throwing of sachet water, forcing him to abruptly end his speech before being whisked away and was then taken back into his office.

Justice Adu Ahiakwa was one of the organisers of Wednesday’s protests and according to him, the latest demonstration was occasioned by authorities’ failure to act on the June 20 march to drum home the need to fix the deplorable roads in the affected communities.

“Last month we had a demonstration…and there’s no response from the DCE so today too we decided to do another demonstration. Our concern is about the roads, the whole Shai District, the roads are not potholes but manholes so we want them to fix it and we need asphalt,” he demanded strongly.

The situation, he said affected access to health centers where patients referred from the affected communities to the Dodowa government hospital for further medical attention risked losing their lives along the bumpy stretch.

Aside from this, he expressed concern over the lack of investment drive in the area owing to the situation and wondered why residents would continue to grapple with bad roads in a district that is home to several quarries.

A demonstrator and driver who gave his name as Amos complained bitterly about the effects the situation was having on his transport business. Aside from the costly regular maintenances, he also suffers financial losses due to the situation.

“I’m tired of complaining, nobody appears to be listening, I spend a lot on maintenance, all the profit goes into maintaining the car due to the nature of the roads", he said.

Another, a 38-year-old trader from Doryumu also said, “This road will forever remind me of the ordeal my sister went through to have her baby at the Dodowa hospital. The bumpy nature nearly caused a miscarriage, would somebody ever listen to us?”

Meanwhile, the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Shai Osudoku, Fred Ofei speaking to the press after the demonstration, admitted that most roads in the district were in a very bad shape. As much as he said the assembly was not in a position to construct the roads, he said he would continue to prompt the appropriate authorities to act accordingly.

The DCE noted: “Shai Osudoku is facing a lot of challenges on roads, not that of the Doryumu Stretch alone, but Dodowa to Afienya is there, Asutuare Junction to Asutuare through to Tokpo, all are bad. The Assembly is not sleeping on it as the Assembly cannot construct a kilometer of a road.”

He continued: “When you go the ministry of highways, they always tell you, and I have a list of contractors on our roads but it’s left with funding which we’re pushing the central government hard to make sure it gets funding for the contractors to resume [works] on our various roads".

The impact of the roads, the DCE added also posed a security threat to the area as the police equally complained about its effects on effective policing and their efforts to apprehend criminals.

He, however urged the people to remain patient as the President and the government aren’t sleeping on the issue but they are neck-deep in raising funds to address the road infrastructural challenges in the Shai Osudoku District.