A group calling itself Concerned Residents Association of Awoshie-Pokuase is mounting pressure on the government of the day to pay compensations due them after their lands were acquired for the Awoshie-Pokuase highway.
Speaking to the press on Monday, August 29, 2022, at Ablekuma Olebu in the Anyaa-Sowutuom municipality, Accra, the chairman of the group, Mr Peter Kofi Adu, said the issue has lasted since 2010.
He explained that former president John Agyekum Kuffour, relying on the legislative instrument E.I.19, acquired the lands for the construction of the Pokuase-Awoshie highway in 2006.
His tenure of office expired and the John Evans Atta Mills (late) government took over the reigns of government. President Mills started the project in 2010 and “promised to pay us the compensation” however since then “there have been a series of engagements” with the authorities but to no avail.
In 2018 “we went to land valuation department to demonstrate and the officers at the land valuation department saw that we were serious about the development so they promised to work on it for us” yet still nothing has materialised.
Despite presenting series of letters and documents to the Jubilee House for assistance regarding the development, no positive feedback has been provided to the aggrieved persons.
Mr Kofi Adu lamented that throughout the struggles for their compensation about 35 affected members have died while an appreciable number have been sick, which to the members is very worrying.
“So now, we are calling on President Akufo-Addo to come to our aid in the quest for the compensation in the next 14 days else we will strike like a wounded lion,” the group warned.
Meanwhile some of the residents spoke to Angel News about their disappointment on the compensation by successive governments.
“The road has been of great benefit to all, but the lands taken for the construction are our properties. He must not wait for us to die before he takes a step; already many have died and some are ill,” Apostle Joseph Kofi Twum said.
