Criminals terrorize residents as weeds takeover abandoned Kwadwo-Addaikrom police post, telephony project

Robbers are terrorizing residents of Kwadwo-Addaikrom, a farming community in the Asunafo North Municipality of the Ahafo Region.

According to Mr. Abraham Kwabena Seipela, the Assemblyman for the area, the robbers target and rob cocoa farmers and purchasing clerks, sometimes at gunpoint.

During a visit to the cocoa-growing community, residents appealed to the government to expedite the completion of an abandoned police station to improve security and control the robberies.

In an interview, Mr. Seipela expressed regret over the increasing crime wave, stating that criminals had capitalized on the absence of a police station to engage in criminal activities.

He noted that another significant problem for the more than 4,500 residents is the lack of a telecommunication network due to an abandoned telephony project, which makes it difficult for people to interact digitally.

Providing some background, Nana Kofi Anane, the Chief of Kwadwo-Addaikrom, explained that the government began work on the rural telephony facility and the police station project in 2020. The abandoned rural telephony facility, undertaken by the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communication (GIFEC), aimed to bridge the digital gap in the area.

Regarding the police station project, Nana Anane said it was being executed by the Middle Belt Development Authority (MBDA) under the government's One-million-per-constituency policy. He added that the chiefs and people of the area had provided land for the project, but work had stalled for almost four years, with the contractor nowhere to be found.

Nana Anane noted that Kwadwo-Addaikrom has more than 20 adjoining villages and appealed to the government to facilitate the resumption and completion of the projects by MBDA and GIFEC. He expressed concern that the lack of telecommunications and the rising crime wave had slowed socio-economic activities and discouraged rural and community banks from setting up in the area.

He voiced confidence that completing the telephony facility would bridge the digital divide and connect Kwadwo-Addaikrom and its neighboring communities to the digital world.

Currently, weeds have overtaken the police post project, which had reached the lintel stage. The building is deteriorating, and the rural telephony facility is at the mercy of the weather.