Tension is boiling at Santasi Apire, a suburb of Kumasi, after residents clashed with police over poor roads.
The over 50 residents of Apire Monday morning took to the streets and blocked roads in protest over the poor state of the Santasi-Apire road.
The angry residents say their protest is premised on the fact that the Apire road has killed at least three people this year, the recent happening last Friday when a car veered off the road and somersaulted into a ditch.
Midway through what appeared to be a peaceful protest, over twenty police personnel stormed the trail, dispersed them and removed the blockades from the road for traffic to flow.
The angry residents tried to resist police from removing the road blocks.
According to an eyewitness on Akoma FM‘s current affairs and political show GhanAkoma, “the police is manhandling us here, we are citizens who have rights to embark on peaceful protest but the police are beating us just because we are not being spectators”.
Prior to the 2020 elections, residents of Apire protested over their bad roads.
A few days later, the road was awarded to Kofi Job construction Limited for rehabilitation works.
One year down the line, however, residents are back on the said road with no development.
“There’s nothing better to write home about because we are back to square one.”
Reacting to the resident’s lamentations, Ashanti Region Director of Feeder Roads Justice Koranteng told host of the show Aduanaba Kofi Asante Ennin that “I spoke with the contractor, he assured me he will move to site after the rains stop because technically we cannot resume the gravel overlay whiles the rains are massively pouring, so we hope the rains will cease to ensure we rush to the site and complete the Santasi-Apire road project”.
By Nana Asenso Mensah|3news.com|Ghana