Okoe Boye at the end of the road over ‘hopeless’ Lekma stretch

Residents of Spintex, Batsonaa, Nungua, Teshie and Labadi will have to be more patient as the 7.5-kilometre Lekma road will not be constructed any time soon.

The MP for the Ledzokuku Krowor, Dr Bernard Okoe Boye, said his efforts to get help from his colleagues in power have all been frustrated. 

“All I can do is advocacy. I have spoken to the Chief of Staff who told me ‘Doc we know this your road is important we are doing everything to get it done’. I have talked to the minister he tells me ‘Doc your road is so important...’ I don’t want to mention names but I have spoken to many people so say ‘we know your road is important and we are going to work on it...’ he told Evans Mensah on Joy FM’s Newsnight Monday.

He said those in charge have given him a lot of assurance but he cannot tell what the roadblocks are. 

The MP, who is also a medical doctor, said the needed resources to construct the road is beyond his strength “so I have to do a lot of advocacy and following up.”

The Ledzokuku Krowor Municipal Assembly officials are under pressure to fix deplorable link roads in the area thought to be responsible for destroying vehicles and leaving residents with respiratory infections.

The residents are accusing the Akufo-Addo led government of failing to honour a promise to them to fix the roads when voted into office. Not only vehicle owners are affected by the poor roads here, literally, but other businesses along the stretch are also crippled.

Mr Boye who also chairs the management board of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, said immediately after winning the seat, he started working on getting the road fixed which got him into contact with the contractor who started work in the John Mahama era.

The contractor explained that there was an outstanding certificate of about ¢25 million, which was yet to be processed to enable him to finish the work.

“I gathered all the certificates and started going to the Finance Ministry until they met with the contractor and paid one of the certificates. The contractor gave assurance that he will move to the site,” he said.

Dr Okoe Boye is the Ledzokuku Krowor MP

The contractor never went back and the Ministry decided to abrogate his contract and engaged the services of a Nigerian company.

“The condition upon which he was given the contract in November 2018 was that he had the funds to fully execute the contract so he will be paid based on agreed terms. He promised to finish the 7.5 km dual carriage road in 12 months,” he said.

Over three months later, the contractor kept giving one promise after another that the was waiting from his equipment to arrive from Nigeria.

Apparently, they never did, so a few months ago, the Finance Ministry had to look for a new company that has the funding to execute the project.

Perhaps the pre-financing option is not bearing fruit any time soon because the supposed new contractor is demanding documents from the Finance and Roads Ministries to get their banks to release the funds.

Lekma MP joins the lamentations

The MP who works at the Lekma Hospital said, he has skipped his Monday shifts for the past two months because the frustration has become unbearable.

He said the people ask him “why are you here to consult when the road is so bad.”

“Some people have the impression this road is about the electoral fortunes of Dr Okoe Boye, it is not really so. This road will determine if you will survive or die in case of emergency especially if you stay at Spintex, Batsonaa, Nungua, Teshie and Labadi, Lekma is your best bet as a referral centre,” he stated.

He cited the example of a gynaecologist who told the hospital not to call on him when there is an emergency because he nearly lost his life after braving the road in the dead of night to go and perform a surgery on a patient. 

“Other physicians when called are not willing to cooperate. It is also true that pregnant women who are almost near delivery can suffer Antepartum haemorrhage due to the bad road which will threaten their pregnancy,” he noted. 

The MP said he has documented this and more and sent to the Ministry concerned so they appreciate the urgency of the issue over a year ago but there is yet to be any light at the end of the tunnel.

“One year after putting it on paper, I have followed it every day. Sometimes I spend an average of three days out of the five working days at the Ministry. I spend more days at the Ministries than in the chamber of Parliament...” he said.  

 

 

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