GaDangbes Accuse Kufuor Administration

The GaDangbe Youth Council, an association of the youth of Ga and Dangbe people, has thrown the first tribal salvo at the Kufuor administration, accusing it of marginalizing other tribes, including GaDangbes to the advantage of the President's native Asantes.

The association says in choosing personalities for ministerial and ambassadorial position of Board members of state-owned institutions, President Kufuor gave preference to his native Asantes to the neglect of other tribes, especially the GaDangbes who according to them were given few appointments.

Expressing the sentiments at a press conference at which the La Youth Association, La Youth Clubs Association, and the GaDangme Asafoatsemei Council were all represented, the indigenes of GaDangme reminded government that the Greater Accra region is the "Florida" of Ghana's political polls.

Fuming with rage while answering questions from journalists who seemed not to comprehend the reason for their demands and threats, the GaDangbe community called on the President to review some of the appointments so far made, especially that of the Tema Development Corporation (TDC), which according to them, affects them directly.

They indicated that their marginalization in such appointments suggests that Ga-Dangbe do not have equally qualified people for such positions.

Reading the statement on their behalf, Mr. Ransford A. Lamptey, President of Ga-Dangme Youth Council, called for the nullification of the election for the Greater Accra Regional Representative on the Council of State, which according to them was supervised by a "seriously flawed electoral college".

They called for an injunction to restrain Dr. Kofi Amanor Owusu-Ansah, regional representative on the Council of State because of what they termed "disappearance of some nomination forms as well as allegations of fraud surrounding the election".

They also noted that Dr. Owusu-Ansah, not being a Ga-Dangme indigene, could not present their case properly at the Council of State and requested that an indigene represent them.

They also alleged that the Regional Minister, Sheikh I. C. Quaye, did not allow the Electoral College the opportunity to study the background of candidates who filed their nomination for the position of regional representative to the Council of State.

On land litigations that have bedeviled the region, the association appealed to the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice to repeal the Land Development (Protection) and Purchasers Act, 1960 (Act 2) which requires anybody who develops a building to lintel level in Accra and its environs only to automatically become the owner of the plot on which the building stands.

They held that the law has been widely abused by public officers and individuals and that it is at the root of a lot of conflicts and litigation in Accra and also responsible for the proliferation of land guards in the region.

"The law has also been responsible for the indiscriminate sale and double, triple and quadruple sale of land as the owners are in competition with trespassers," the association bemoaned.