A convoy of Roads Minister, Kwasi Amoako Atta, was on Thursday blocked from entering Sandema by some youth of the town.
The Youth who called themselves “Common Interest of Buluk in Sandema,” used their motorbikes for the blockade.
Reportedly, they took the action to register their displeasure over the slow pace of work on the Chuchuliga-Sandema stretch of the roads in the Builsa North Municipality according to the Ghana News Agency.
Mr. Stephen Yakubu, the Upper East Regional Minister together with Mr. Williams Aduum, the Kassena-Nankana Municipal Chief Executive, had to alight from their vehicles in the convoy to plead with the youth to stand down according to reports.
According to the youth, the construction work was abandoned for several months only for them to see a grinder on the road a day to the Minister’s visit.
One Hippolite Awennate Alhassan, who is named as the Chairman of the group is reported as saying that the people of Buluk had been taken for granted for too long by the government.
“The road contract was awarded in 2016 and was supposed to be completed by 2019 February. After they cut sod for the construction, they halted the work. Anytime the President or any dignitary is visiting the Municipality, then you see the Contractor on-site, when he leaves, then that ends it,” he is quoted as saying.
Reportedly he explained that the last time the contractor was on site was during the 2020 Parliamentary and Presidential campaign season, “Before the elections, MyTurn was on the road, because the Second Lady was visiting the Municipality.
“And after that, he varnished, we never saw him again until now that the Minister is visiting, then he decided to come on-site again. So we said no, we cannot be taken for granted all the time. We want the road to be left as it was for the Minister to know that no work is done,” the Chairman said.
According to him, the group had sent many petitions to the Office of the Regional Minister but to no avail. However, the regional Minister, Mr. Stephen Yakubu, is reported as claiming no such report had come to him.
“We have come with the sector Minister to see the problems so that we will be able to resolve them for you. I am in the Region, why haven’t you come to tell me this, and because today Minister is coming here, you are blocking the road. You should have come to tell me that this is the problem you have so that we address the issue. What you are doing is not good. If you have any problem, I am the Regional Minister, come and tell me. So let us go and do what we have come to do,” Mr. Yakubu told the youth.
His intervention however calmed down the angry youth according to reports.