President Nana Akufo-Addo
President Nana Akufo-Addo has extended his condolences to the family of the latest victim of a road accident on the Madina-Adenta highway.
The President described the death as “an unnecessary loss.”
He also said the “scenes that played out in its aftermath are regrettable, and should not happen again.”
On Thursday afternoon, Police responded to the protest on the Adenta stretch of the highway after a teenage girl, who was a student of the West Africa Secondary School, was knocked down by a car.
This sparked protests which disrupted the flow of traffic. The protesters blocked the road and burned tyres in anger, following the incident.
These agitations traced back to last week, where two other persons have been knocked down, with little government response.
When police arrived to restore calm on Thursday, there were reports some protesters hurled stones at them.
Calm was eventually restored and the road was opened to traffic at about 7:00 pm amid complaints of police brutality and excessive force.
Police were widely criticized for using excessive force against the protesters.
Footage from the scene of the protests showed heavily armed police in full gear firing gunshots into the crowd.
But the Ghana Police Service says it employed “appropriate riot control methods” during the protest by residents along the Madina-Adentan highway despite reports of excessive force used by police personnel present.
President Akufo-Addo also reiterated the government’s commitment to improving the safety of pedestrian on the stretch.
The protests moved the government to announce that work is to commence on the uncompleted footbridges on the Madina-Adenta highway from next week following the death and subsequent protests on Thursday.
“The Ministry of Roads and Highways is ensuring that work begins on completion of these bridges in the course of the coming week, and has put together a comprehensive plan to address systematically all these infrastructural problems, which are legacies of a past decade of neglect.”
“I would urge drivers and pedestrians to obey and respect the laws on our roads. All of us, Government and the citizenry, have a collective responsibility to safeguard and preserve life. My condolences, once again, to the family,” the President’s statement concluded.
-Citifmonline