The planned peace walk by Adentan residents to demand the completion of footbridges on the Madina-Adentan stretch of the N4 highway has gone ahead despite an earlier statement saying it had been suspended.
Residents of Madina and Adentan converged on the West African Senior High School early on Monday morning as planned for the walk.
Selorm Branttie, a Vice President at IMANI and a resident of Madina, has been very vocal on the plight of the people, and he told Citi News residents were going ahead with the walk despite initial reports of a suspension of the walk, to keep the government on its toes.“There were organizers of this particular activity but most of them are not here because some of them decided they will not be part of this at the end but the residents here still want to keep the momentum and the fire burning.”
“…We have reorganized our which ourelves for the purpose of going for this peace march to commemorate the lives that were lost and also let the government know that we want to hold them to their promise of fixing the footbridges as well as all the other related activities that have been requested.”
Mr. Brantie also said the statement announcing the suspension, which was signed by an Assembly member, among others, was done in bad faith.
“That communique was done mischievously with selfish intentions by people who do not have the safety and the interest of the community at heart…
Late on Sunday, the leadership of the #FIXOURFOOTBRIDGESNOW Campaign explained that after a meeting with the Madina Divisional Police Command, there had been significant moves made to address the concerns of the group, hence the suspension.
“At the meeting, specific concerns were raised by the commander, advising the planning committed to hold on with the proposed peace walk. His reason was that he was going to intervene with the authorities to deal with our earlier concerns,” the statement noted.
The concerns included the repair of non-functioning street lights, the repair of nonfunctioning traffic lights, the completion of the footbridges, among others.
The police commander also promised to broker engagements between the community and the relevant state officials.
Since that meeting, the group notes that the street lights on the highway have been repaired and traffic engineers were seen removing broken down traffic lights for repair.
A “high powered” government delegation, led by the Interior Minister has also been to the area to engage aggrieved residents.
Given the progress since last Thursday, when protests about the dangerous state of the highway intensified, the group said it was “mindful of losing public sympathy before giving a ten-day ultimatum for authorities to complete work on the traffic lights, street lights, road markings and finally begin work on completion of the footbridges.”
Over the last two weeks, residents of Adenta have been protesting the absence of footbridges and other safety measures on the Madina-Adentan highway.
Multiple persons have been knocked down in that period with fatalities recorded.
The most recent was the knockdown of a teenage girl who was a student of the West Africa Secondary School.
He death sparked a large gathering of protestors, who burned tyres and blocked all traffic on the road.
Following the protests, government moved into action as it announced hours after the protest that work is to commence on the uncompleted footbridges on the Madina-Adenta highway from this week.
The residents had earlier held a vigil in memory of the departed souls.
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LooBy: Delali Adogla-Bessa | citinewsroom.com | Ghana
The post Madina-Adentan residents embark on peace walk over footbridges [Photos] appeared first on Citi Newsroom.
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