NDC wants Mahama invited to Akufo-Addo unveiling of motorway expansion
The main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has entreated President Akufo-Addo to credit his predecessor for the Tema Motorway Expansion Project.
The Greater Accra NDC Regional Secretariat said former President John Dramani Mahama initiated the project before handing over in 2017.
Mr Akufo-Addo is expected to inaugurate the Tema Motorway Expansion Project project on Friday and the NDC wants the government to invite Mr Mahama for the event.
The party said inviting Mahama would follow a precedent set by former president, John Evans Atta Mills
It was Mills who invited former president John Agyekum Kufuor to the commissioning of the N1 Mallam Highway Interchange in 2012.
Deputy Regional Youth Organizer, Amos Blessing Amorse, at a press conference in Accra on Thursday, traced the historical facts behind the construction of the motorway expansion project.
He referred to then president John Mahama’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) in January 2017.
Mr Mahama stated in that speech, “Many other projects are ongoing such as the Tema motorway roundabout decongestion project and a new bridge from Flowerpot Roundabout to the Spintex Road over the Accra-Tema motorway into East Legon and there are others ready to commence with financing arranged such as the Obetsebi Lamptey interchange, the Pokuase interchange and motorway expansion project among others.”
Mr. Amorse said the project is amongst the four major interchanges earmarked for construction by H.E. John Dramani Mahama before exiting power in January 2017.
The NDC said President Akufo-Addo deliberately refused to acknowledge Mr Mahama when he cut the sod for the Obetsebi Lamptey Interchange project to commence on October 22, 2019.
Mr Amorse accused Mr Akufo-Addo of trying to take the shine of Mahama’s investment in infrastructural projects such as construction of the Motorway, Pokuase and Obetsebi Lamptey projects.
It was Mahama, he said, who cut the sod for the construction of the Kwame Nkrumah Circle Interchange in October 2013 and there announced that government would expand the Accra-Tema motorway into six lanes to ease traffic.
It was the Meridian Ports Services Limited that would later construct phase one of the motorway project at $7 million, the NDC said.
The NDC said phase two of the project, which involves a flyover, was duly catered for by the erstwhile government through a credit facility of about $60 million from the Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA).