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Drivers Go Wild In Tarkwa

By Daily Guide
General News Drivers Go Wild In Tarkwa
DEC 1, 2015 LISTEN

Economic activities in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality of the Western Region came to a temporary halt yesterday as commercial drivers demonstrated against bad roads in the municipality.

Commencing around 7am, the demonstration compelled many government workers and others in the private sector to find alternative means of transport to their workplaces.

After long waits in very long queues at trotro stations and taxi ranks, most of the workers were forced to walk from the bus stations to their destinations, with some openly supporting the action of the drivers.

Wearing red bands on their hands and heads, the agitated drivers marched through some principal streets of Tarkwa claiming that they were always forced to spend a chunk of their earnings on repairing their cars due to the bad nature of the roads.

The commercial drivers indicated that the bad roads in the municipality made it difficult for them to do business, stressing, 'the roads are so bad that commuting from one part of Tarkwa to the other is tedious and stressful.'

According to them, they could no longer bear the bad nature of the roads in the area; hence their decision to demonstrate to draw attention to the bad roads.

Complaints
Speaking to journalists in separate interviews, the drivers claimed that they were fed up with the lies and false assurances given them by the Municipal Chief Executive, Christina Cobbinah.

They indicated that due to persistent rains in the area, the potholes on the roads had virtually become 'manholes' and that it was only those who owned 4X4 vehicles who used the roads with some comfort.

Kojo Fynn, a commercial driver, said he had to send his car to the mechanic for maintenance once every week due to the bad nature of the roads.

'I spend so much on maintenance every week, which is affecting my work,' he said angrily.

The drivers therefore hoped their demonstration would be enough to draw the government's attention to how deplorable the roads are in the ancient town.

Samuel Kwesi Mensah, one of the leaders of the drivers, said they incur huge losses because they spend too much on replacing spare parts every day as their cars break down too frequently due to the poor state of the roads.

The driver could not fathom why for a long time government had done nothing about the poor roads even though the area had attained a municipal status.

'The roads were bad when the area was a district. Now we are a municipality and yet the roads are still bad even though the various tolls and taxes paid by the drivers to the assembly have been increased astronomically,' Mensah asserted.

He stated: 'Several appeals made to the Municipal Assembly and the relevant institutions on the need to fix the roads had fallen on death ears.'

Meanwhile, a source at the Municipal Assembly indicated that the assembly had set aside some amount of money for the repairing of the poor roads and that work would soon commence.

From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi

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