Sam George goes wild on gov't over deplorable Kpong-Dawhenya roads

Member of Parliament (MP) for Ningo-Prampram, Sam George, has expressed frustration over the poor state of roads in Kpong, Dawhenya, and its environs.

President Akufo-Addo broke ground on October 25, 2020, to upgrade the 17-kilometre dual carriageway to international standards, including 10 lanes—six on the motorway and four for local traffic.

But after five years and the parliamentary approval of a £96m loan for the project in 2019, the MP has said there is nothing to show for it.

In an interview on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem, the livid legislator said all efforts to get the Ministry of Roads to fix the deteriorating roads have hit a snag.

Residents of Community 25, Prampram, Dawhenya, Devtraco, and associated communities, who ply this route, he lamented, spend several hours in traffic to and from work.

Ahead of the December 7 election, Mr. George said he came across a young boy who shared his daily plight of setting off to school at 4 am just to beat traffic. However, he ends up staying in traffic for three hours and getting to school at 7 am or even later.

“I have spoken about this issue for a long time, since the Amoako-Atta’s tenure, but to no avail. This road is part of the West African Highway that starts from Lagos and ends in Monrovia. It was supposed to be an 18-month project,” he said.

“The project was awarded to BHM and then handed to First Sky, and the speed of work at the beginning was impressive in 2021,” he said.

Speaking on what has accounted for the delay, he attributed it to the freezing of external loans due to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme since the government defaulted on debts.

“There were issues of traffic management when the project started, so there were diversions, but there was no roadwork, which has created a lot of potholes on the road—Prampram, Afienya, Savannah, Kpone Barrier.”

“After a lot of pressure, former Roads Minister Kwasi Amoako-Atta instructed the contractor to fill the portions with bitumen and the situation got better, but now we are back to square one. It’s as if Asenso-Boakye doesn’t care about the situation because you don’t even get to meet him,” he lamented.

Suggesting the way forward, Mr. George called for the government to start remedial works on the stretch.

Additionally, he has appealed to the Ministries of Finance and Roads to seek exemptions from the IMF so stalled road projects can continue.

“They should make a strong case and get an exemption through which the IMF can give the green light to the British bank to start disbursing the funds, but the government has refused,” he stated.

The abandoned project, when completed, is expected to have double carriageways, with four interchanges at Kpone Barrier, Savannah, Dawhenya, and Prampram junctions, as well as an emergency route.