It has emerged that the scores of youth, who took part in a demonstration over the poor state of the road from Benchema Junction to Osei Kojokrom in the Juaboso District in the Western North Region, were bused in NDC pickup vehicles from across the district for the protest.
The demonstrators, mainly the youth, blocked a portion of the road with some sticks and pieces of wood and burnt car tyres in protest against the authorities concerned for doing nothing to fix the roads.
Their action caused a temporary halt to vehicular movement.
The protesters claimed that there was a contractor working on the road but was asked to stop work by the current government. They, therefore, appealed to the government to immediately bring back the contractor on site.
They threatened that if the road was not fixed within a month they would resort to smuggling their cocoa beans to Cote d’Ivoire, indicating that the road was in a very dilapidated state despite several promises from authorities and subsequent governments to fix them.
“There was a contractor who worked on the road for us but right now the whole road has been destroyed again,” they claimed
Besides, they claimed that it was unacceptable that a chunk of the country’s cocoa was produced in the area but were lagging behind in terms of development. The youth felt sidelined from the Ghanaian society.
Speaking to DAILY GUIDE after the demonstration, a resident of the area who gave his name as Master Maxwell insisted that the demonstrators were bused from some areas in the district believed to be the stronghold of the NDC for the exercise.
He asserted that as early as 7 am yesterday, the Juaboso Constituency Secretary of the NDC, one Alexander Addo Kweise, started transporting them.
He mentioned that the youth believed to be NDC supporters were transported in NDC pickup vehicles from communities like Nkatieso, Benchema, Nkantakrom and ‘290’, all communities in the district for the protest.
DCE
Speaking to DAILY GUIDE, the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Juaboso, Madam Martha Kwayie Manu, indicated that she heard some youth embarked on a demonstration in the area yesterday.
She, however, indicated that she was not aware the demonstrators were NDC youth saying it was the Unit Committee chairman for Juaboso who later informed her that those who demonstrated were NDC activists.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi