Upper Denkyira District Assembly gets municipal status

Dunkwa-On-Offin (C/R), Oct 22, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor on Sunday announced that the Upper Denkyira District would be elevated to municipal status.

He said the area, which has two constituencies, would be divided into two districts to make administration easier and effective. President Kufuor said this when he joined the chiefs and people of the Dunkwa-On-Offin to honour past heroes of the area as part of the 50th independence anniversary celebration. He said the elevation of the district was in appreciation of its contributions to the development of the area and the country at large. The ceremony was celebrated on the theme "A nation which cannot honour its heroes is not worth dying for".

The President also inaugurated a market complex that has 63 lockable stores, a buruli ulcer treatment centre with a capacity to accommodate 40 patients at a time. He also unveiled the statutes of Odeefuo Boa-Amponsem III, Denkyirehene, the longest ruling chief in the area, and Nana Owusu Bori II, who instituted an educational fund for children and also built the Omanhene palace at Dunkwa-On-Offin in 1943 during his reign. In all 20 personalities including Odeefuo Boa-Amponsem, who was installed in 1955, Professor Wireko-Brobbey, Prof. Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi and Dr Erasmus Yao Klutse were honoured for their immense contributions to the development of the area and were presented with citations.

President Kufuor commended the chiefs for honouring their past heroes and called on the youth to learn from what their leaders had achieved.

He said the youth should learn more about their culture and traditions rather than emulating foreign cultures blindly. The President said the government had put in place a lot of incentives to improve the living conditions of Ghanaians and pledged that it would not rest on its oars but would make sure it met almost all their demands before he leaves office in 2008.

He said the government would continue to ensure the rule of law and good governance to enhance true democracy in the country, stressing that Ghana had now become the "envy of many African countries because of the peace prevailing in the country".

President Kufuor said the nation was blessed with a lot of things including the discovery of large quantities of oil and the building of the Bui dam that would go a long way to address the energy problem. He said with the discovery of oil and with proper management, the nation would completely change in terms of development in the next three to five years

President Kufuor appealed to Ghanaians to allow peace and unity to prevail and that no matter their political or religious affiliations they are still one.

President Kufuor also called Ghanaians to continue to pray for and support the government and asked that when he leaves office, they should vote for a responsible person to takeover from him who would continue with what he had started. Nana Kwame Kumah III, acting president of the Denkyira Traditional Council, commended the government for the numerous development initiatives.

These include classroom blocks, the school feeding programmes, capitation grant, National Youth Employment Programme and the National Health Insurance Scheme.

He also commended the government for ensuring the rule of law and good governance that has enhanced peace, development and freedom of speech in the country.

Nana Kumah appealed to the government to expedite action on the tarring of the Dunkwa-On-Offin/Cape Coast road to enable farmers cart their goods to marketing centres.

He also appealed for the establishment of teacher and nursing training colleges and teachers' quarters and dormitories should be built for the Diaso and Dunkwa senior high technical schools. Nana Kumah appealed for the upgrading of the Boa-Amponsem Senior High School into a model school. President presented GH=A25,000.00(50 million cedis) cash and two cartons of schnapps to the chiefs, who in turn presented him with a Kente cloth and a carved elephant. 22 Oct 07