President Akufo-Addo’s appointees have been lashed on social media for blaming the opposition after another death on a highway triggered riots.

Deputy Information Minister, Pius Enam Hadzide, was not forgiven for his post that appeared to sympathise with victims of the road fatalities but ended blaming the erstwhile John Mahama government for failing to fix the six footbridges.

Work on the footbridges have been abandoned for almost a decade after the road was constructed.

Pius Enam Hadzide posted on Facebook Thursday evening:

My condolences and sympathies to the families of all the accident victims of the Madina-Adenta road. Government commitment to fixing this and many other challenges that it inherited remains resolute. We shall fix this in the shortest possible time. Meanwhile, we must call out the NDC for attempting to take undue advantage of this unfortunate incident and engage in opportunist politicking. We are where we are today primarily due to their 8 years of  inaction.”

Pius Enam Hadzide was moved from the Sports Ministry where as a Deputy Minister, he was embroiled in a visa racketeering scandal in 2018. He was eventually cleared of wrongdoing.

A presidential staffer, Samuel Bryan Buabeng was forced to pull down a Facebook post that also blamed the NDC government under John Mahama.

Photo: Samuel Bryan Buabeng

Photo: Pius Enam Hadzide (L) and Samuel Byran Buabeng (R)

It was a post by the President’s nephew, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, that appeared to play a moderating influence on angry comments against the Akufo-Addo government over the highway deaths.

A citizens’ count has put the number of deaths on the Madina-Adentan highway at 194 in 2018 alone. 

Angry residents late Thursday afternoon, set tyres ablaze, billows of the smoke clutch the atmosphere making the road with a 100km/hr speed limit unpassable.

“No more deaths!”, the residents have been chanting following the accident which occurred at about 4pm.

The latest fatality is a first-year female student of the West Africa Senior High School (WASS) who was hit by a taxi driver yet to be identified. She died on the spot and the driver reported himself to the police after an initial attempt to run away.

The footbridge remains uncompleted, traffic lights are faulty and no road signs on the highway making it the deadliest in Accra.