Correspondence from Western Region

A cross-section of residents in the Aiyinasi-North area of the Ellembelle District in the Western Region have threatened not to vote again in the December general elections if their deplorable road network is not fixed.

Residents in the area have been appealing to successive governments to rehabilitate their deplorable road network for them but these appeals have not yielded any positive results.

The road network is a 75-kilometer stretch and starts from Aiyinasi-Nyamebekyere to Prestea Nkwanta.

The area also serves as a food basket for Ellembelle District and produces over 100 tonnes of cocoa for the country.

Apart from the cocoa, the area can also boast of cash crops such as coconut, rubber plantation as well as cassava, yam, maize, sugarcane and vegetables.

Some residents who spoke to our Correspondent off camera said, before their forefathers settled there, they only used bush road to access health facilities, market centers and others.

But they established that, it took the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah to construct a vehicular road through the forest somewhere in 2013.

Currently, the road has deteriorated and they are appealing to government to come to their aid.

Speaking to some traders whose cars had broken down in the middle of the road over the weekend, where our Correspondent joined some Journalists to access the nature of the road, they expressed their disappointment over how politicians had failed to rehabilitate their road network for them.

Two women who registered their displeasure over the situation emphasized that as for this year they would not vote for any political party.

"We will not vote this year. Look at this road, we will not vote for any political party," they said.

These traders had their car spoiled when returning from Takoradi after trading.

"We have been on this road for good five days because our car has spoiled and we are hungry", they lamented.

They said it seems they were not part of Ghana because their road network is in deplorable state.

"It seems we are not part of Ghana. If they do our road, we will vote but if they don't do it, we will not vote"

"We struggle before sending our food items to market, we are suffering here and NDC are NPP have failed us. They think we are not human beings", they gruntled.

One woman, who blamed the NDC and NPP for taking them for granted, quizzed why she should vote again while her road network road was in bad state?

"I don't have a road so why should go and vote, I will not vote, I will not vote for NDC and NPP and I will not vote for anybody"

She continued, "Look at this road, I should go and go vote then it means I am mad, never I am saying that I don't have road. What is the essence of me to vote while I don't have a good road?”

"If they don't fix our road, we will never use our fingertips to vote this time around," she pledged.

As to whether they will cast their ballot when government is able to put the road in good shape, the woman replied in the affirmative adding that "we will vote for any government which will fix our roads.

She ended, "We have been here since Monday and today is Saturday and still we here because our car has spoiled due to the bad road".

As a result of the bad state of the road network, cocoa farmers are compelled to send their cocoa beans to Prestea Huni-Valley Municipality, Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality and Amenfi West District and this has affected the development of Ellembelle District, our Correspondent noted.



In a telephone chat, the District Chief Executive (DCE) for the area Mr. Kwasi Bonzoh disclosed that the road had been awarded on contract for work to start.

According to him, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has agreed to finance the road and assured the residents that within four months’ time, they would see massive changes on the road.

He, therefore, blamed Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah who is their MP and the NDC government for not tarring the road network for them.

He charged the residents to vote for him (Ellembelle DCE) as their MP this around after for voting for Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah for good 12 years without fixing their road network.

Responding to the DCE, the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah promised to rent Bulldozer to reshape their road network for them as soon as possible.

He, therefore, urged the DCE not to play politics with the road and use his government to fix it.

Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah said the DCE should know that he was the first MP to construct their road network to allow vehicles and motorbikes to go to the Aiyinasi North.