General News of Wednesday, 17 November 2010

Source: Daily Guide

Benyiwa-Doe Snubs Chiefs

The chiefs and people of Abura Dunkwa in the Central region are very angry with their regional minister because she failed to deliver on a promise she made to them recently.

Although Comfort Ama Benyiwa-Doe had promised to settle an impasse between the people and their District Chief Executive (DCE), Aba Edusah, the former failed to appear at the negotiating table last Saturday without any tangible reason.

Madam Benyiwa-Doe, according to Daily Guide sources, went to the chief’s palace on Tuesday to inform the linguist that she would be attending a programme on Saturday and that if she did not attend the meeting, she would assign someone to represent her.

The chiefs waited for Madam Benyiwa-Doe from 10:00am to 2:00pm before they started to leave the Omanhene’s palace one after the other in utter disappointment.

The DCE, popularly called, Abura ‘beauty queen’, has been at loggerheads with the chiefs and residents of the area over her administrative style. The regional minister, according to information available to Daily Guide, did not give the chiefs any explanation for her inability to attend the meeting and also refused to send somebody to represent her, an action the chiefs described as gross disrespect on her side towards them.

Some youth drawn from Abura, Asebu and Kwamankese came to the meeting to give moral support to their chiefs on the issue but were disappointed when the regional minister did not show up, a situation which compelled them to rain insults on the regional minister, DCE and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government.

The youth claimed government had also refused to heed their plea to sack the disrespectful and corrupt DCE. The chiefs indicated that they were against the DCE’s intention to locate a multi-million market project to Asebu.

Information available to Daily Guide indicates that the regional minister’s absence was due to the fact that she was a good friend of Madam Edusah’s. It would be recalled that DAILY GUIDE published a story with the headline ‘Mills Girl Goes Wild’, in which the residents of Abura who staged a demonstration against Madam Edusah were stoned by her.

Madam Edusah also poured water on the demonstrators and also broke louvre blades of her office to scare them. Some journalists were also stoned by the DCE who has so far survived four demonstrations since her appointment.