The New Juaben South Municipal Assembly has temporarily suspended the decongestion exercise which was scheduled to take effect on March 1, 2022.
The decision to suspend the exercise was taken during a meeting held and chaired by the MCE Isaac Appaw Gyasi.
The reason for the suspension is the inability of the security agencies to deploy enough personnel for the exercise due to preparation for the upcoming independence celebration and the one-week celebration of the late Omanhene of New Juaben traditional area Daasebre Prof. Emeritus Oti Boateng and the paramount queen mother, Nana Yaa Daani II.
The Assembly is expected to hold a press conference next week Tuesday to announce a new date for the exercise.
Meanwhile, the New Juaben South Municipal Assembly has recruited about 20 additional city guards to augment its staff strength as part of the preparation for the impending decongestion exercise.
The exercise will be carried out by a joint security team of Police, fire service, military, and city guards.
The Eastern Regional Minister, Seth Kwame Acheampong who is championing the exercise has meanwhile said, the much-awaited massive decongestion exercise in major towns in the region is imminent.
According to him, planning and stakeholder engagements have extensively been done hence deployment will soon commence.
At the latest stakeholders forum organized on Wednesday by the New Juaben South Municipal Assembly and participated by transport unions, market women, pragyia riders, representatives of NDC and NPP among others, participants welcomed the decongestion exercise and signed undertakings.
However, some appealed to the Assembly to find convenient places for them aside from the proposed Argartha and Zongo markets and beads market which they say are already congested.
The Eastern Regional Minister Seth Kwame Acheampong said nothing will stop the exercises.
“It has been the vision of the administration to keep our cities and this is a clarion call from H.E Nana Akuffo Addo as subordinate of heads and stewards of the state we have no choice but pursue the objectives of the first gentleman of the land and matters that borders on our growth are clean environment and decency of the Ghanaian that restores the dignity of our people we need to pursue them so Koforidua being the regional capital or region, there are no better times than now to enforce this rules.
We have been holding this conversation from the outset when we came into office and it has been a consultation so we have gotten to the stage where we need to deploy and ensure that congestion takes effect in the region.
But we believe in a democratic dispensation, your best option is to engage the citizenry and to ensure that they appreciate and understand your mission, our mission is to decongest and ensure that we work with the city managers and ensure that the city is managed appropriately with the best practices wherever we travel to that’s what we are doing here.
We have been holding meetings and about going to the ground to deploy but we can only deploy when we have already engaged the stakeholders else you end up receiving a back clash” the Minister said.
According to Minister, recalcitrant drivers loading and parking indiscriminately as well as Okada and pragia riders will be put to check.
“Some road users are a bit recalcitrant, others are clearly people who just don’t want to observe rules and if you don’t observe rules these are some of the things that happen and this exercise is taking place not because of what happened at Nsawam, this has been a long journey since last year.
We are not doing it only in Koforidua, but major municipalities such as Nkawkaw municipality, Nsawam, Oda, lower Manya as well as Asamankese municipality, these areas are areas that are quite big and we are focusing on them”.
Seth Kwame Acheampong said the exercise will begin in Koforidua and trickle to other parts.
“We are rolling this out in Koforidua but it will trickle to all the communities that am talking about this are the procedure to use and go about it in order for people to understand and appreciate what we want the communities to do well.
It is unfortunate that you get to some communities and you can’t even drive through the streets that are available, it all filled up with some who are legitimate road users and others who have encroached and have gone even beyond the service reservations that have been left for future development”
Source: Mybrytfmonline.com/Obed Ansah
