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Residents of Apatrapa Newsite in the Kwadaso municipality of the Ashanti Region are threatening to stage a massive demonstration over the poor nature of a bridge in the area which led to the death of two students last month.
Two students who were trying to crossed the broken Bridge fell and was swept away by flood waters into a drain leading to their deaths.
The entire community of Apatrapa Newsite was thrown in a state of shock and grief on 2nd March 2021 when the unfortunate incident occured.
Following the incident, government officials including the M.P in the area visited the scene as usual, to assess the situation and make promises.
Hon Dr Kingsley Nyarko, member of parliament for Kwadaso constituency, promised that the bridge, which has not been rehabilitated after it collapsed two years ago will be repaired.
One month on, the state of the bridge has worsened, as a part of it has been left hanging while other parts including the broken covert has been Swept away by the heavy flood.
Some of the residents who expressed their dissatisfaction about the situation told Silver FM’s Akwadaa Nyame they will stage a demonstration over the matter.
One of them said “When it rains heavily, school children around this area are not able to go to school. Even drivers and commuters are not able to use this stretch to their destinations. So we are appealing to the Government to come to our aid. With the current state of the bridge, we are really suffering. If the authorities fail to fix our bridge, it means that our votes have gone waste. It is really difficult for us, especially in the rainy season. We will demonstrate if the bridge is not constructed”.
One other resident who gave her name as Antie Maggie said a similar disaster nearly happened when it rained recently.
“If they fail to fix the bridge, we will all come together and drive away any politician who will come here to campaign during elections. How will they come to campaign if the people living in this area are all killed by the floods. We are mobilizing ourselves to protest and show our anger about the recent disaster that occurred here”, she added.
Chairman of the landlord Association in the community Agya-Sei said, the demands of the residents are in order.
“We are only appealing them and if they fail to fix our bridge we will all come out and demonstrate, because that is the only language Government now understands. If you need something from Government and you don’t embark on a demonstration, your problem is not given any attention. So we are appealing to Government and the necessary authorities to help us”, he appealed.
Meanwhile, Assembly member in the area Hon Collins Boamah told Silver News that the bridge is part of some projects in the municipality which have been captured in a report and have even given to a contractor who started some months ago but has abandoned the project with an excuse of money issue. ” I called the contractor to find out why he has parked all his tools from the site and he told me government still own him and don’t have money to complete” he said.
For residents in the area, the worse disaster might happen if authorities fail to expedite processes to fix the collapsed bridge.
Story by Akwadaa Nyame
