Volta Chiefs Angry Over Dusty Roads

It appears the agitations by the people of the Volta Region will not end anytime soon, although the Volta Regional Minister, Helen Adwoa Ntoso, has been trying to douse the simmering tension. The chiefs in the area have been complaining day-in-day-out about unfulfilled promises by the Mahama administration. The traditional rulers have expressed their frustration on what appears to be deception by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government and said �enough is enough.� One of them refuted the regional minister�s claim that work on the Ho-Sogakofe road was ongoing saying, �In fact, I am not happy for all these years that I have seen this road.� He then described the road as election bait. �I am a bit mature. It seems that road is always being used as bait by government to garner votes from us.� He observed that work on the road was very shoddy and had even been abandoned, contrary to what the minister had claimed. Torgbui Koku Ahiem IV, paramount chief of the area lamented, �Anytime we chiefs or people from that area travel to Ho, before you get here you have become a multi-coloured human being � you are either red or black because of the dusty nature of the road.� Another chief fumed, �We have always mentioned the eastern corridor road, but right now the narration is from the Tema Motorway upwards. The roads from Tsito upwards are terrible.� He complained of the deplorable nature of the Ferry at Dambai which he claimed had most of its bolts removed. He also complained about the Worawora-Jasikan-Hohoe road which he described as very bad. He therefore called on the minister to help save the situation. The regional minister was also reminded that the Hornuta-Dzolokpuita road which is an international one, had been abandoned for such a long time and so the claim by Ms Ntoso that it was being rehabilitated could not be true. The chief of Vakpo revealed that the Import Marketing and Quality Awareness Centre built in his area had been abandoned, with weeds taking over one of the three state-of-the-art facilities in the country. Minister Just last Thursday, disgruntled residents of the regional capital, Ho, took to the streets to demonstrate against the NDC administration, asking the government to rename the region �Voter Region� since the people are only useful to the NDC during elections. Immediately after the 12-man demonstration, the Volta Regional House of Chiefs welcomed the regional minister, who briefed the House on the status of roads in the region as well as other development projects. This meeting was preceded by a presentation of the petition of the demonstrators to the House of Chiefs to mount pressure on the government to improve the road network in the region and ensure that other development projects were completed. Madam Ntoso used the opportunity to discredit the use of demonstration to prevail on the government to come to the aid of the people. She said most of the projects including roads were �ongoing�, �near completion� or �completed.� New Projects The President of the House, Togbe Afede XIV, who was also unhappy, complained, �I think the big problem we have in this country� so many projects are scattered, but only a few are completed.� This, he said, led to long delays in completing the projects, noting that the delays eventually make the projects even more expensive. He therefore counselled the government to as a matter of urgency focus on the ongoing projects before starting new ones.