Roads more critical than Free SHS, One-District, One-Factory – NDC MP

The road sector in Ghana has suffered a major setback under the Akufo-Addo presidency over the past one year, Kwame Agbodza, Member of Parliament for Adaklu, has said.

According to him, this administration has reduced the budgetary allocation to the sector in the 2018 budget statement presented to parliament by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, an indication of the government’s unwillingness to strengthen the road sector.

Mr Agbodza was speaking in connection with the closure of the Buipe and Yapei bridges.

The closure was to make way for rehabilitation works.

Mr Agbodza told Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom on Accra100.5FM on Tuesday, 28 November that: “This government has been so insensitive to the people of this country when it comes to the road sector.

“In the 2017 budget, an amount of money was allocated to the road sector, GHS800 million, as we speak that budget has been reduced by over GHS200 million, so when in a year that we saw the smallest amount of road work done in the country in our recent history under NPP, with even a bigger amount of money available, they have reduced the budget of the road sector.

“We are all in trouble as a country. I don’t believe One-District-One-Factory or free Education can spur the growth of this country without paying attention to the road sector, so, if anybody is suffering on these roads, it is something that has been brought upon us by the NPP.

“They could have ensured there are alternative roots before they closed the Yeji Bridge.”

The Ranking Member on the Committee of Transport added: “We want to summon the road minister and the COCOBOD Chief Executive Officer to Parliament to respond to Members of Parliament on these things because Cocoa and the roads are interlinked.

“Cocoa has been the backbone of Ghana over the years but the way and manner this administration is behaving at the COCOBOD is not good at all for the country.

“Total disregard for the progress of and the development of our country, so, some of us are calling for an urgent encounter with the COCOBOD CEO and the Road Minister because we can’t continue like this, on the back of allegations that some road contracts were inflated for which those contracts have been cancelled. This is especially so when the current COCOBOD has produced a cooked document.”