Support the Tarring of Yendi – chiefs to Akufo-Addo

The Chiefs and people of Tatale Traditional Area in the Northern Region have appealed to President Akufo-Addo’s administration to support the tarring of the Yendi – Zabzugu-Tatale road to enable farmers in the area to transport their foodstuffs to Urban centres.

The Tarring, the chiefs added would also facilitate the movement from Ghana through Tatale to Togo, which is only four kilometres from the District capital.

Obore Gariba Yankosor II, Paramount Chief of Tatale Traditional Area, who made the appeal during a meeting with his sub-chiefs at Tatale, said the 70-kilometre road between Yendi and Tatale was so deteriorated and made it difficult for vehicles to travel on especially during heavy rains.

The people of Tatale / Sanguli District are predominantly farmers who produce large quantities of food crops, including; Yams, maize, millet, groundnuts, maize and beans, but due to the bad nature of the roads in the area they find it difficult to cart their produce to market centres.

During his official visit to Tatale, the District capital in 2016, former President John Dramani Mahama announced that government in partnership with the World Bank had agreed to tar the road from Yendi, through Zabzugu to Tatale and to the Border Post with Togo.

He gave the assurance that work was going to begin before the end of 2016, but since that time, nothing positive has been done on the road, a situation that was raising a lot of eyebrows on its tarring.

Obore Yankosor said apart from producing foodstuffs, the area also generated revenue to the state through its borders with Togo, Benin and Nigeria.

For instance, he said a lot of traders plied the Ghana and Togo border at Nachamba in the District, which was only four kilometres from the nearest Togolese town Kpanjali.

The Paramount Chief said most of the vehicles that plied the road broke down frequently, while others got stuck in the potholes on the road and indicated that there were also lack of culverts and bridges on streams across the road, leading to its fast deterioration.

Obore Yankosor II, therefore appealed to President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo to consider their plea and expedite action on tarring the road as this year’s rain is intensifying in the area.

Touching on Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJs), the chief said the current nature of the road in the area could make it difficult for the government to achieve its objective of improving on the lot of farmers through the flagship programme.

“It is unfortunate that most of the foodstuffs get rotten during the rainy season and with the Planting for Food and Jobs programme, there is the need for the government to tar the road as farmers would be increasing their acreage to produce more.