Ketu South: Thousands hit the Streets to bark at Akufo-Addo over continues Border Closure
They say, the pandemic and its resultant border closures, trade restrictions and confinement measures have affected the entire domestic food system of the border communities
The Residents of Ketu South in the the Volta Region have called on the Government to strike a balance between containing the spread of coronavirus and maintaining the daily economic activities in their communities to avert disaster.
According to them, “it is very clear that this virus has come to stay, hence the need for the government to strike a balance between containing the virus and maintaining the day-to-day economic activities that millions of Ghanaians living along the border
depend on to survive”.
They say, the pandemic and its resultant border closures, trade restrictions and confinement measures have affected the entire domestic food system of the border communities, most especially Aflao, and thereby threatening food security.
In a petition to the Municipal Chief Executive after a mammoth demonstration in Aflao on Friday, Vincent Yaw Adzoga, who represented the organizers stated said “the ripple effect has been a dying local economy, reduced access to health care and job losses”.
Adzoga reiterated the urgent need for land borders to be opened for publice business.
The petition was received by the MCE, Edem Agbenorwu, on behalf of the Akufo-Addo led New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.
On Friday August 27, 2021, hundreds of residents within the Ketu South Municipality and its environs staged a street protest, nicknamed “Open Our Borders Now” to urge the government to restore business and economic activities.
The residents, in their thousands were carrying placards some of which had the inscriptions: “Border closure collapsed our businesses”; “open the border now”; “hunger is more deadly”; and “open land borders, save lives”.
Others read: “allow us to visit our families in Lome”; “closing border=hunger”; “Mie fu kpem” and “fishermen at the border are suffering”.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Abla Dzifa Gomshie, who was very active throughout the demonstration appealed to President Nana Akufo-Addo to value the lives of her people and open the border, “we are on our knees, Mr. President”.
“All we are asking, is that, when Accra and Kumasi were under lock down, some provisions were made for them, some social interventions were provided.
“What about border communities like Ketu South, we are Ghanaians. We’ve been locked down for about one and half years”, Madam Gomashie submitted.
She asked for the necessary protocols to be put in place at land borders to prevent the spread of COVID-19 as done at the various airports for normal life to return to the border communities.
Also at the protest were, the Constituency Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Bright Kumordzi, the Volta Regional, Constituency Executives of the NDC, and a delegation from Togolese.
By Edzorna Francis Mensah || ghananewsonline.com.gh
