Naked demo to rock Jubilee House over abandoned Sofoline interchange project

Residents of Abuakwa in the Atwima Nwabiagya Municipality of the Ashanti region have demonstrated over the abandonment of the Sofoline Interchange project, MyNewsGh.com reports.

The demonstration was fronted by a group which calls itself the Youth Coalition for Progress.

The protesters have served notice of a naked march on the Jubilee House if a two-week ultimatum elapses without any concrete measures taken to fix what is left of the road.

“We will besiege the Jubilee House naked if they fail to fix our roads within two weeks. We believed in the President when he promised during the campaign time that our roads will become motorable if voted into power. Three years on, we haven’t seen anything. They must fix our roads for us because we trusted their words. Anything short of that will not be tolerated.”

The Tanoso-Abuakwa stretch of the dual carriage project from the Komfo Anokye Hospital Roundabout to Abuakwa has stalled since it was started in 2007, making it one of the most gridlocked roads in the country.

The repeated stoppages of work on the road has been as a result of government’s failure to pay for work done to the tune of $30 million to the contractor, China Geo Company.

In November 2018, the Minister for Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako Atta on a tour of the Ashanti region announced the release of funds to the Chinese contractors to resume work on the project.

The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah also assured the public that the contractor will fix traffic lights and footbridges along the road.

Managing Director of the China Geo Engineering Corporation, Ghana, Eric Yang expressed his gratitude to the government for the payment, when the Roads Minister announced it.

But almost one year down the line, there’s no show of work done on the road, provoking the anger of the residents.