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Ghanaian Politics

Xavier-Sosu to haul Roads Minister before Parliament over bad roads in Madina

By : cd on 27 Oct 2021, 10:39     |     Source: citinewsroom

Francis Xavier

The Member of Parliament for the Madina constituency, Francis-Xavier Sosu, says he has already taken parliamentary steps to haul the Roads and Highways Minister, before the House over the dilapidated nature of roads in the constituency.

He says his observations show that the contractor, working on the road network in his area, has not shown demonstrable competence in executing the work.

Speaking on Face to Face on Citi TV, the legislator who recently led his constituents to protest the bad roads said, the posturing of the contractor demands answers from the sector minister on how the contract was even awarded in the first place.

“I have heard the contractor on other media platforms, and I get the impression that he is not a serious contractor. So I have filed an urgent question already in Parliament, and it is to bring the roads minister to the floor of Parliament to come and answer to the people of Ghana the criteria used to select contractors to work on roads in Ghana and what kind of punitive measures are there if they fail the people of Ghana; we need to know.”

The MP added that there is enough cause to believe roads have been left unattended to after the contracts have been awarded as a result of the government giving out such contracts to party apparatchiks

“The times when these roads are awarded as a “Thank You” package to some party faithful is passed. So the Minister should come and answer. If I look at the calibre of this person who claims to be a contractor having a contract from the government worth GH¢11 million, yet doesn’t have a grader or an austerity measure and the people are crying for the roads to be fixed; then the Minister should come to Parliament and answer,” he said.

The MP led residents within the La Nkwantangang-Madina Municipality to protest over poor road network in the area on Monday, October 25, 2021.

The angry residents blocked the Ayi-Mensah, Danfa, and Otinibi stretch as part of the protest to express the constituency’s displeasure over the devastation caused by recent heavy rainfalls, which flooded and trapped some constituents in their homes.
Some of the protestors called on the government to without delay deploy contractors to fix their roads.

Mr. Xavier-Sosu said his checks reveal that most of the roads have been awarded to contractors but all efforts to get them on site have proven futile, thus the need for the demonstration to put pressure on the government to get them fixed.