Kumasi, April 17, GNA - The Very Reverend Jubilant Boakye-Danquah, Superintendent Minister in-charge of Bremang Methodist Church in Kumasi, has called on the government to take urgent steps to repair all old and weak steel bridges in the country. He mentioned as of them as those bridges spanning the Pra and Offin rivers in the Western, Ashanti and Central regions. He said most of these bridges, built immediately after independence, had not seen any significant maintenance and warned of imminent disaster.

The very Rev Boakye-Danquah said this at a press conference in Kumasi to draw attention to "some moral and social issues affecting the development of the country." He said the nation should not wait for the bridges to collapse before "we call on Italian and French engineers to come and build them for us."

He described the present state of most of the iron and steel bridges as completely unacceptable and said it was time the government acted to put them in good shape. The Very Rev. Boakye-Danquah urged the police to ensure that vehicles crossing the Adomi-Senche Suspension Bridge were not allowed to exceed to legally permissible axle load. He also touched on other social issues such as non-enforcement of traffic regulation, bad waste management practices and encroachment on school and reserved lands.