President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has assured the Upper East region work will resume this year on the much-lamented Bolgatanga-Bawku-Pulmakon Road.

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia delivered the promise on behalf of the President Saturday at Bawku to the King of the Kusaug Kingdom, Naba Asigri Abugrago Azoka II, during his Ramadan tour of the region.

“Just last week, last Thursday, we discussed an issue of roads and the prioritisation of certain roads in the country. And your good friend, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, said that whatever happens, the priority of roads, the Bolga-Bawku Road has to be inside.

“So, we are making the funding available and you are going to see a resumption of work on this road this year so that we complete it to help the whole area. So, Nana Akufo-Addo wanted me to personally deliver that message that your request for the completion of that road is in his heart and we are going to do it,” said the Vice President.

Queiroz Galvão, a Brazilian construction company, signed a Gh¢612 million contract awarded by the Mahama Administration in the middle of 2016 to reconstruct the 116-kilometre-long international road within 910 days (2 years and 6 months). But months after President Akufo-Addo’s ascension to power, the company withdrew its machines from the site over alleged failure on government’s part to pay a demanded part of the contract sum.

A string of open protests, prominently featuring a group calling itself the Concerned Kusaug Youths, greeted the stalled project with placards and petitions. It took a Deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Joseph Dindiok Kpemka, who is one of the nine Members of Parliament who drive through that road to their various constituencies, to calm down ruffled nerves in 2017 by telling demonstrators through the media-government had engaged the company in fruitful talks to return to site.

Bawku Monarch worried over politicians’ interference in Chieftaincy Affairs

Welcoming the Vice President and his entourage to his palace, Naba Asigri Abugrago Azoka II complained some politicians were meddling in chieftaincy affairs in his traditional area.

An interpreter who spoke on behalf of the monarch, Alhaji Osman Akasum Alem, told Dr. Bawumia: “He (the Paramount Chief of Bawku) says he is aware you and your President don’t interfere in chieftaincy matters. Those behind you are causing it and he wants to bring it to your notice.”

In response, the Vice President affirmed the Presidency, as once declared, would not at any point interfere in the business of any traditional council in the country.

“Nana Akufo-Addo, before he came into office, came here. I was with him. And he told you that for him there’s no way he’s going to interfere in chieftaincy matters. That is exactly his position and he will continue to be in the position. We are a country of the rule of law and we’ll follow Ghana’s laws and Ghana’s constitution,” stated Dr Bawumia.

He added: “We need development. Our people need development. That is our number-one focus. That is what you have sent us into government to do. We ask you for your continuous prayers for the President, Nana Akufo-Addo, for the government, so that we continue to deliver.”

The Vice President also paid a visit to Natinga, a suburb of the Bawku Municipality, where an admiring crowd of his fellow Mamprusis, young and old, lined the streets and the main road to welcome him.