A potential 2020 flagbearer for the NDC, Professor Joshua Alabi has asked the President to fire his Roads and Highways Minister after another death on the Madina- Adenta highway sparked riots

Speaking in an interview with Raymond Acquah on Upfront on oy News’, Prof. Alabi said the Minister Kwasi Amoako-Atta has been slow to react to public anger over the deaths on the highway. 

“The President must call the Minister to order for responding late to this security risk.”, the NDC politician told host Raymond Acquah.

Photo: Joshua Alabi

Professor Alabi said if he was president he would have fired the Minister because he (the minister) did not prioritize the lives of the people.

The Roads and Highways Minister told Joy FM Wednesday he was touring the Western Region and would only respond to the highway deaths when he reaches Accra Thursday.

But Thursday was too late as a female student of West Africa Senior High School was killed after a taxi driver knocked her down late afternoon. The deaths according to residents are now 194 on the highway this year alone. 

It sparked outrage at Adentan with enraged residents burning used car tyres and making the road unmotorable. It took several hours of a police clamp down of the rioters to restore order.

But the clampdwon was also not without causalties as a mother and her son were hit by a bullet from the police.

Professor Alabi explained that the minister should have sorted the problem swiftly when it was brought to his notice.

“This is a security risk and you expect Ghanaians to wait for you to brief parliament, organize a press conference and go through bureaucratic procurement process before you act, you are fired,” he stated.

“The national security should have been invited early to assess the situation and to fix the threat to lives as soon as possible, whiles those bridges are being worked on,” Professor Alabi stated.

Government has said the uncompleted footbridges on the Adentan-Madina highway would be fixed in 2019 after procurements had been done. But the NDC presidential hopeful explained that one of the reasons there is corruption in the country is because of the long bureaucratic process.

Professor Alabi said, “the leaders are there for the people and so the situation of the people should be seen to first.”

“The president must be proactive, get national security to help fix the problem and call the minister for roads and highways to order,” he advised.