The Public Relations Officer for BONABOTO, Stanley Abopam has said that the Upper East region is not ready to have an airport considering the attitude of leaders in the region towards cushioning the government to build the facility for the region.
The Aviation Minister was in the Upper East region to inspect the land allocated for the construction of an airport for the Upper East region.
However, the designated land in Anateem off the Bolga-Navrongo road seem not to have met the standard requirements needed for the project although money has been pumped into preparing the land, leaving the start of the project in limbo.
Several Chief have opted to provide land for the project but speaking to Christopher Asima on Daybreak Upper East, Stanley Abopam believes the Upper East region is not ready to have an airport.
To him, this should not have been a period for a dingdong battle on where the airport should be sited because the Taxpayers money was invested into Anateem in order to prepare it for the Upper East Airport.
“I in the company of Hon. Limuna when he was a regional minister went to the site in Anateem with the Aviation officials and they were holding documents of the technical assesment suggesting that the place was good for an airport. I asked that will aircrafts landing here not interfere with the Burkina Faso airspace; the technical men told me that it will not interfere. They told me that even a jumbo jet could land without interfering in the Burkina Faso airspace ,” Stanley Apobam said, wondering why the land which has had Ghanaian taxpayers money invested into now not been suitable.
He indicated that his worry and that of his organisation is the fact that when the people of Upper East are supposed to ask for when contractor are coming on sight, they are busy giving her options; a clear indication that even if the project will be undertaken, it will delay.
“Our worry is that instead of us asking Mama Dapaah when our contractors will be seen on site, we are giving her new options. You know what that will cost us? Even If we will get the airport project it might delay. Is that what we want? Our brothers in Wa have a complete airstrip. How it will delay? It will mean that committees have to be set, feasibility studies needs to be undertaken whiles the contractor could have done a lot of things by this time on the project.”
“In any case are we saying that we didn’t know the use for our money when we were using it to develop the Anateem land? What happens to the resources we spent there? Our behavior now seems to suggest that we are not prepare for the project,” he said.
He expressed worry about the change in location suggested by the leaders of the region because “ if Anateem has been there since the days of Acheampong to John Mahama and the promise of building an airport for Upper East region has never been fulfilled, what will be the assurance that the airport will be built when a new location is given”.
source:a1radioonline.com/Ghana
