Adansi Youth Association Supports Chief Executive

Obuasi The Obuasi-Tutuka branch of the Adansi Youth Association has expressed support for the appointment of Mr George Adu- Mensah as the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Adansi West. The association has therefore condemned the planned demonstration by the chiefs in the Adansi West District against the DCE. A statement issued at Tutuka, a suburb of Obuasi and signed by Mr Dan Hayes Agyenim-Boateng, a spokesman for the association, said the Adansi youth views the conduct of the chiefs as a gross disrespect for the President and the constitution. The statement said one would have thought that if the chiefs had anything against Mr Adu-Mensah, they would have discussed it with the district assembly before his election or would have had a dialogue with the President on the issue instead of going straight to the press. The youth, the statement said, ''want to make it clear that the grounds for the chiefs kicking against the DCE's appointment are personal and therefore selfish.'' The statement said the boundaries between Adansi and Bekwai, or Denkyira, Assin and Akim were demarcated by Armitage and Fuller and that no rpt no individual can change them. It said if Mr Adu-Mensah did something in connection with the royalties paid by the Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC), he did so in his capacity as a Member of Parliament for that area. This neither amounts to the annexation of part of Adansi lands to Bekwai nor does it alter the boundary between Adansi and Bekwai. The statement said the association was aware that the formula for the disbursement of the royalties was agreed upon by the Adansi chiefs, the then Member of Parliament and the then DCE who signed a resolution to the Minister of Mines and Energy. It, therefore, wondered why the chiefs thought Mr Adu-Mensah would cede their land to Bekwai. The youth said the fear of the chiefs is that Mr Adu-Mensah, being a man who has the welfare of the people at heart, may prevail upon them to use part of the royalties to better the living conditions of their people, hence their animosity towards him. Gri