This year’s Easter festive season didn’t go as planned by some fun-seekers, as most of the beaches along the country’s coastline were closed to visitors.
Easter holidays are usually celebrated with large numbers of people visiting beaches across the country to relax and have fun.
Close to a year ago, some residents of Chorkor, a suburb of Accra, even defied lockdown directives and COVID-19 protocols imposed by the government to go swimming at the beach to celebrate the Easter.
But this year was an exception as the beaches remained empty.
Beaches in the Greater Accra Region such as the Sakumono Beach, La Boma, and Labadi Beach were among those empty.
This was a result of heavy security presence at the beaches to ensure adherence to COVID-19 directives by President Akufo-Addo.
Ahead of the festivities, police had deployed armed men to guard the country’s beaches as part of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 during Easter.
This follows the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey, directing the police and other security personnel to close down all beaches from Ada to the coastal boundary within the Central Region indefinitely, to ensure sustained compliance with all COVID-19 safety protocols, especially during the Easter celebrations.
“President Akufo-Addo has on several occasions in his address to the nation indicated the need to avoid going to pubs, night clubs and especially the beaches but people will not listen, so in collaboration with the Ministry of Interior and the IGP, I am sending a stern warning to all of you, on Friday, Easter holiday, please stay off the beaches, there would be heavy security deployment all the way from Ada to the coastal boundary within the Central Region,” he stated.
By Francis Addo