Regional News of Friday, 22 November 2013

Source: GNA

Bawku residents appeal for streetlights

Residents in the Bawku Municipality and its environs have appealed to the Municipal Assembly and the Volta River Authority to restore street lights in the municipality.

The residents said absence of street lights at night was a security threat, making life uncomfortable and insecure.

They said absence of street light caused a 21-year-old senior high school to be knocked down and killed by a motor tricycle. The accident occurred as a result of poor visibility at the time because there were no street lights to assist pedestrians and motorists. Some of the residents at Possum, Natinga, Gengande, Sabon-Goodey, Kariyama, Kwaliweaga communities told the GNA that the periodic gunshots heard in these areas were done by some people who took advantage of the darkness to cause fear and panic.

The central part of the town has no street lights and the few ones found there are not functioning. Also, traffic lights have not been functioning and the central market area, lorry stations and some social centers have no security lights.

Some traders and business people operating in the central part of the town at night claim that business activities had slowed down due to the absence of streetlights.

Mr Samuel Akaamah, assembly man for the Kutanga Electoral, said proposals had been submitted to the assembly for the installation of streets lights but efforts to install them had proved futile.

He, therefore, called on stakeholders and other development partners to help set up an independent body that could have the overall mandate to work on the street lights instead of using the bureaucratic system which usually fail.