Kwasi Amoako-Atta
Minister of Roads and Highways who is the Member of Parliament for Atiwa West in the Eastern Region, Kwasi Amoako-Atta, has made a U-Turn over the claims that he suggested the conversion of tollbooths into public urinals.
According to him, the comment attributed to him was taken out of context as only a portion of his interview was published.
The government in its 2022 Budget scrapped the collection of tolls across the country.
A directive from the Minister caused the immediate cessation of tolls even before the budget was approved by Parliament, an act many, including the Minority in Parliament described as unlawful.
The tollbooths, since the abolishing of the tolls, have been abandoned creating nuisance to road users.
This has raised concern in many quarters, with the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) urging the government to demolish the structures for the sake of road safety.
But it does appear the government has different plans for the abandoned structures.
The Minister for Roads and Highways, in a response to the National Roads Safety Authority for abandoned tollbooths across the country to be demolished, said plans are far advanced for their conversion to public washrooms since the collection of road tolls has been abolished by the government.
He was quoted categorically saying that “We even want to refurbish all tollbooth structures to provide proper and decent washrooms for the use by motorists so that we advised them to desist from that practice where sometimes you see cars stopping on the highway and people getting down to wee-wee as we usually see”.
But facing a huge backlash from the public, the Roads Minister has made a U-turn saying his earlier comments to the press have been taken out of context.
Speaking on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday, February 9, 2022, Mr. Amoako-Atta said: “In our program, we said that going forward we want to refurbish the tollbooth that is at the centers where we have offices attached and we even have washrooms, we are going to improve upon them and other things we want to do to modernize the tollbooth centres”.
He continues that “The primary aim and objective for doing that is to advise road users and commercial drivers that if passengers decide to use the washroom some of which already exist, we will make them available so that instead of people easing themselves at the roadside which we all know is an eyesore, they would resort to the refurbished washrooms to be used and I think it’s a laudable idea among others.”
– BY Daniel Bampoe