Asokwa Indigenes Furious As Street Where One Of The 3 Judges Murdered In 1982 Lived Is Renamed After JJ Rawlings

Some indigenes of Asokwa, a suburb of Kumasi in the Ashanti Region have expressed disappointment in the Municipal Chief Executive of the Area following a street renaming exercise in the Area.

According to the furious indigenes, one of them, a son of the late Chief linguist of the Asantehene, and founder of the NLM, Baffuor Osei Akoto, it is unthinkable that the authorities will even conceive the idea of naming that particular street after a man like Rawlings.

The said street was originally named after Mrs. Grace Tandoh Poku, wife of the late Asante businessman, Poku Transport who lived in that Area for decades.

It is instructive to note that the same street in question was also inhabited by the late Baffuor Osei Akoto, father of the Current Minister for Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, whose younger brother, Akwasi Afrifa Akoto is part of those agitating against the renaming of the street after the late former president Rawlings.

The said street was also inhabited by the late Justice Kwadwo Agyei Agyapong, father of former NPP General Secretary, Kwabena Agyei Agyapong who was part of 3 High Court Judges who were abducted by soldiers under the PNDC regime in 1982 and murdered in the night.

Akwasi Afrifa Akoto, in a Facebook post, wondered if a prominent street in the Volta Region could be named after someone like General Akwasi Amankwaa Afrifa.

He wrote, “Something sinister is going on at Asokwa.

The name of this street is ” Mrs Grace Tandoh Poku”, the wife of Poku Transport. But someone has quietly renamed it after the dead murderer, Rawlings.

The street which connects the above street is called “Poku Transport road.” A street on which both Bafour Akoto and Poku Transport lived for decades. A street on which Justice Agyapon once lived…a street on which the residents were harrassed for years during 1979 and 1981 coups…the ever present Pinzgauers traumatizing children…..a street and a residential area where most of the fathers went into jail or into exile or got killed…….And you want to name the street after Rawlings ?

Is this some kind of a sick joke? This is akin to a Hitler street in Israel. In fact, I m currently going through PSTD since i learnt of this travesty- a street on which I grew up?Do you think anyone could go to the Volta and name a prominent street in a prominent residential area after General A.A Afrifa?

I shall be visiting the Asokwa Municipal Office to look into this….This is insane….the ultimate insult……this is madness….I m even lost for words……

Source: GhanaFeed.Com