The deplorable state of a 15-kilometre road which links Mumuni Camp to Prestea Nkwanta in the Amenfi West Municipality of the Western Region was adversely affecting economic activities and quality healthcare delivery to residents in about ninety five cocoa growing communities in the region, Today has gathered. 

The potholes and muddy nature of the Mumuni Camp-Prestea Nkwanta road, Today discovered, was causing many horrific motor traffic road incidents, resulting in the loss of lives of many heavily sick persons, particularly pregnant women as well as locking up thousands of bags of cocoa in the bushes.

Investigations conducted by Today revealed that it has now become an accepted norm to see heavily sick persons and heavily pregnant women in labour being carried on motorbikes and bicycles in long distances from Mumuni and Nkwanta to hospitals in Prestea during labour because commercial drivers have refused to ply that road.

Today’s findings showed that the situation has made many big trucks loaded with cocoa beans stuck in mud along the road, making the drivers to spend about two weeks of struggling to remove their trucks from the mud.

Today was told that residents of Nkwakwa and Mumuni communities have currently been in a state of mourning following gory accidents that claimed the lives of many people.

They blamed the horrific incident chiefly on the deplorable state of the road.  The situation has compelled the Chief of Prestea Nkwanta, Nana Amoamu II, to appeal to President Nana Addo Dankwa AAkufo-Addo through the Western Regional Minister, Member of Parliament (MP), Mr Eric Afful and Wassa Amenfi West Municipal Chief Executive, Mr George Agiri, to fix the major trunk road in the area in order to reduce recurring road accidents.

In an interview with Today on Friday, November 9, 2018 Nana Amoamu II described as “failed and empty promises” made by the government, MP and the MCE of the area.

The chief told Today that although he together with his elders had made several appeals to the government through their MP and MCE to fix the road, it remained the same, affecting the economic lives of the people.

Consequently, the obviously angry chief gave a 14-day ultimatum to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to, as a matter of urgency, fashion out measures to fix that deplorable road or face their wrath.

He indicated that the Akufo-Ad-led New Patriotic Party government has “woefully neglected” Wassa Amenfi West Municipality for a very long time.  And that, according to him, would force the chiefs and people in the communities to stage a massive demonstration to protest the poor state of their road.

“Our pregnant women and sick persons are also dying as a result of the bad nature of the said road and so if we do not see any improvement on it then we will embark on a massive demonstration and we will make sure we sustain it till the right things are done,” he warned.

The chief further asserted that the risky nature of the said stretch of the road coupled with “extreme” poverty have been some of the major problems facing the municipality to which their MP and the NPP on several campaign platforms in 2016 promised to address but have done nothing for the last two-and-a-half-years.

Nana Amoamu ll stressed that, “I’m pleading with the Municipal Chief Executive of Wassa Amenfi West Municipal Assembly, Mr George Agiri, Western Regional Minister, and the Member of Parliament of the area, Mr Eric Afful, to let President Akufo-Addo know that our road is very bad so it should be fixed.”

“The road is full of deep potholes and mud. And I know the President is a father and so he should ensure that the road is fixed for us before another accident happens,” he appealed.