Construction of an airport in the Upper East Region is about to take place at Sherigu in the regional capital, Bolgatanga, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced.

Addressing traditional authorities and residents of the Bongo District at a durbar Thursday as part of his two-day working tour of the region, the President said the region would see “signs of movement” very soon at the proposed site of the long-wanted facility.

“Minister for Aviation has been up here in the Upper East region and in Sherigu has come across some land that the chief there has given her which she hopes to be the basis of an additional airport in the northern region of Ghana in addition to the one in Tamale.

“So, this request of yours for an airport in the Upper East region is something that is already on the drawing board and very soon you’ll see signs of movement there,” he said as a euphoric crowd applauded him on the latest promise.

His comments were in response to a plea made at the durbar by the Vice President of the Upper East Regional House of Chiefs, Naba Baba Salifu Atamale Lemyaruum.

The Vice President, who is also the Paramount Chief of Bongo, had said: “In the history of constitutional rule, this is the first time that a sitting President has visited Bongo. Past presidents came here only during campaign seasons. As the Vice President of the Regional House of Chiefs, I wish to make a passionate request on behalf of my colleagues and the entire people of the region— the need for an airport— to augment that of the Tamale Airport since travelling by air is safer and faster and to position the region strategically to attract investors.”

President cuts sod for Replacement of Collapsed Bridge

Before the durbar, President Akufo-Addo was at Balungo in same district to cut the sod for construction of a new bridge following the collapse of an old one.

The road, where the bridge is going to be constructed, links Ghana to Burkina Faso. It has seen several lives lost and a number of road users maimed owing to its extremely deplorable state.

“The Bongo-Balungo-Namoo Road has been given out to contract. It was commissioned by me today and it’s going to be completed within one year.

“This is not some election year machinery of a sort to come and deceive people. That is not what I am doing. We are building the road. We are going to make sure that the road is built,” he declared, attracting applause from the audience.

He also visited Ayopia, a community in the Bongo District, where he inspected a dam being constructed under the One-Village-One-Dam scheme.

“The collapse of the old bridge is affecting our access to health services. This bridge connects fifteen communities to the Bongo District Hospital. In the night, you can be there and they would call you to inform you that a woman is in labour. How to cross with that pregnant woman to Bongo, you can’t,” lamented the Assemblyman for Balungo, Dominic Akolgo, minutes before the President arrived in that electoral area to symbolically break the ground for a new bridge.