The Akom Axle Load Centre in the Afigya Kwabre North District of the Ashanti Region was thrown into chaos on the morning of Monday, June 30, 2025, as a group of irate National Democratic Congress (NDC) youth staged a protest over alleged corruption, bribery, and mismanagement at the facility.
According to the protestors, officials at the Centre have been complicit in allowing overloaded trucks to pass through unchecked in exchange for bribes. These unrecorded transactions, they claim, are enriching a few individuals while causing major revenue losses to the state.
Clad in red armbands and chanting protest songs, the youth stormed the Centre, disrupted operations, and called on the government to immediately investigate and sanitize the facility.
“This is a national disgrace. State officials are collecting money under the table and letting these trucks destroy our roads and steal from Ghana. We’re here to say: Enough is enough!” shouted one of the protest leaders.
The protest escalated quickly, prompting the urgent intervention of the Ashanti Regional Deputy Security Coordinator, Alhaji Nje, and his team of security operatives. Their arrival brought calm to an increasingly tense situation and helped avert any violent clashes or destruction of property.
Speaking to the press shortly after diffusing the protest, Alhaji Nje stated, “We received intelligence earlier in the day and moved swiftly to the Akom Axle Load Centre to ensure law and order. The youth had legitimate concerns about corruption, and I want to assure the public that these matters will be fully investigated. Ghana belongs to all of us, and accountability is non-negotiable.”
Thanks to the timely intervention, operations at the Centre resumed without further disruption. No arrests were made, and there were no reports of injury or property damage.
The youth, however, remain resolute. They have submitted a petition to district authorities and called on the Ministry of Roads and Highways and the Ghana Highway Authority to take urgent steps to conduct an independent audit into the operations of the Load Centre.
Kwame Yaro, NDC Youth Organizer for Afigya Kwabre North, who led the protest, declared, “This is just the beginning. The corruption at this Load Centre must end. If nothing is done, we will return—and next time, it will be bigger. The state is losing money every day. We’re simply demanding accountability.”
The protest has since triggered public discourse in both traditional and social media spaces, with calls from civil society for greater transparency and reform at axle load checkpoints nationwide. Some experts are pushing for the complete digitalization of axle load operations to eliminate human interference and prevent future abuses.
As Ghana continues to battle economic pressure and seeks to maximize domestic revenue, the disruption at Akom may prove to be a wake-up call—one that demands immediate action from authorities.
