Abora (W/R), Oct 03, GNA - A chief has appealed to the government to divert the Apimanim/Adiewoso stretch of the Apimanim Junction/Elubo highway to check the spate of accidents that had claimed hundreds of precious lives.

The latest accident on that portion of the road occurred on September 26 when a passenger bus veered off the road in a sharp curb and crashed into a valley killing six of the passengers.

Nana Gyanteh Panin III, Krontihene of Lower Dixcove Traditional Area, told the GNA in an interview that accidents on that portion of the road had been a regular occurrence since the road was completed in 1961. ''Several appeals to previous governments to divert that stretch of the road, which had become a death trap, fell on deaf ears.'' Nana Panin, the chief of Abora, said ''hardly does a week pass without the occurrence of an accident that usually claims many lives and destroys property.''

He said the authorities, recognising the dangerous nature of that portion of the road, awarded it on contract for rehabilitation. Nana Panin said the road had worsened after the completion of the job, alleging that it had become slippery resulting more accidents. "For the past four decades the road has already proved too costly to the nation and to many families and we should not wait until prominent figures die here before we do something about it", Nana Panin said.