On Tuesday, October 24, a group known as Concerned Youth of Offinso took to the streets to protest poor road conditions in their communities.
Clad in red T-shirts, the residents, comprising various sub-groups such as residents associations, keep-fit clubs, driver unions, and concerned citizens associations, among others, massed up at Kokote, a suburb of Offinso, as early as 7 a.m. to begin the protest, which lasted for five hours.
Displaying placards with inscriptions such as “We’re suffering in the land of our birth; fix our roads”; “We pay property rates and taxes; fix our roads”; “We are citizens, not spectators”,
“We are all Ghanaians, No road No vote, fix our roads, “Our women are getting miscarriages because of the bad roads”, among others.
Commercial activities came to a temporary halt as market women and other workers within the community joined the protesters.
It was, however, very peaceful, without the pelting of stones and other objects or the burning of tyres, a situation that did not give the police much task except to walk leisurely along with the protesters.
A protester from Nyakaso told Silver FM that due to the deplorable roads, they had to pay double transport fares.
John Awuah, a driver, said he had to park his taxi due to the situation because he could not afford to take his car to the mechanic shop for repairs every two weeks.
Madam Serwaa, a trader from Bonsua, said the construction of some roads like Bonsua, Amoawi, Nyakaso, Worapong, and Wawase, among others, was long overdue.
One of the protesters, Kwame Nsiah, who read a petition presented to the Municipal Chief Executive, Kinsley Owusu Appiah, urged the MCE to fix the roads or forget their vote in 2024.
“Most of our community members are farmers and traders so when they are fixed, we believe it would help us get to our market place early and it will also help the farmers to bring their farm produce to the market for sale,” portions of the petition stated.
“If we do not see any work in progress before 2024 election after our petition, we the concerned youth of Offinso, and its adjoining communities shall mobilise not less than 5,000 residents onto the streets on a weekly basis until our grievances are addressed,” the petition added.
The MCE, for his part, said the road will be fixed very soon since he and his Member of Parliament are working on it.
Hon Kingsley Owusu Appiah mentioned that the roads, such as Bonsua, Amoawi Nyakaso, Worapong, Gyebi, and Ayesua Koto, among others, are very deplorable and need to be fixed as soon as possible.
