Residents of Yama in the West Mamprusi Municipality in the North East Region last Wednesday demonstrated over the state of the main access road to the town from Walewale.
The aggrieved residents, who walked peacefully on the main access road from Mishio to the town for two hours, said they do not understand why the contractor had abandoned the road, leaving the culvert unfilled.
This they say has made it totally impossible to use the road thereby denying them access to healthcare in Walewale despite numerous promises by authorities to get the contractor back on site to continue work on the road.
One of the demonstrators who spoke to 3news.com said: “We’re only agitated because of our roads. The leaders have failed us.”
“The travel distance from Yama to Walewale will be reduced to 25 minutes if the road is fixed, but because of the state of the road, we will have to pass through Zua which will take a traveler about an hour to get to. Day in and day out they keep making promises but haven’t kept any. So, if Nana Addo and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia will not fix this road for us, then we are telling them not to also come to the Yama community for campaigning,” another said.
“We are tired. Our women die anytime there is complicated labour and we have to rush them to the Walewale hospital. Those of us at Yama, what do they take us for? This was not what our brother Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia promised us, because he told us that if we vote for the NPP, he will ensure that a road is constructed from Walewale through to Yama to the Mamprugu Moaduri district. What has happened to that promise? Are we not human beings?” another asked.
A third gentleman fumed: “We are not demonstrating based on NPP or NDC. It is because of our roads. They have deceived us for long. They should work on their promises.”
Protests over poor road
The roads lead to five farming communities, namely Yama, Mishio, Bulbia, Chera and Zua.
A journey that should take at least than 25 minutes to get to, now takes an hour to access because of the deplorable nature of the road.
The Yama-Wungu road is one of the roads captured on the infrastructure tracker in a presentation delivered by the Vice President.
However, the GPS coordinate ND-00597-8766 captured on the tracker with the aim of directing citizens to the location of the project, also points to Kukua, a community on the Walewale-Tamale highway.
The major market for the transportation of food stuff is the Walewale market and so is healthcare and access to Senior High School education.
The Yama community is one of the strongholds of the New Patriotic Party in the Walewale Constituency, but residents feel their votes are not appreciated by the NPP government.
By Mashood Issifu Mahama|3news.com|North East Region|Ghana