Land speculators warned off Bui

Sunyani (B/A), Oct. 12, GNA - Mr. Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister on Thursday expressed concern about the activities of land speculators at Banda in the Tain district of the region, where the Bui Hydro electric dam is to be constructed to get compensation.

He advised the Chiefs at Banda to collaborate with the District Assembly on matters concerning land in the area. Mr. Baffour-Awuah was addressing the second annual general meeting of the Regional House of Chiefs in Sunyani.

He explained that the benefits the region could derive from the project was enormous and appealed to the House to help take steps to resolve all chieftaincy and land disputes to avoid unnecessary litigations that could harm the project.

The Regional Minister underscored the importance of the project to the youth in the region and the Tain district in particular and asked the people to take advantage of the numerous jobs the project would create and to go into skill training that would make them employable. Mr. Baffour-Awuah disclosed that the Regional Coordinating Council and the National Disaster Management Organisation had delivered the first consignment of 100 bags of maize, five bales of used clothing, some plastic plates, cups and buckets worth GHC3000 (30 million cedis) to the Upper East Disaster Relief Committee for distribution to the affected flood victims in the region.

He appealed to the House of Chiefs to join in the mobilization of relief items in their respective traditional areas to help rehabilitate the victims in the three Northern regions.

Mr. Baffour-Awuah further stressed the need for the Chiefs to support the new educational reform programme in the area of the provision of accommodation for pre-school and teachers and urged them to find time to pay regular visits to the schools to boost the morale of both children and teachers to make the programme a success. He said very soon the district assemblies would embark on a street naming exercise to improve upon the identification and easy location of addresses stressing that since traditional rulers were the embodiment of the people, there was the need for them to lend their support towards development.

Okatakyie Agyeman Kudom IV, President of the Regional House of Chiefs expressed regret about the increasing rate of chieftaincy cases, which now stood at 59 as against 52 in 2006.

He attributed the rise to the lack of a Counsel to assist the judicial committees to adjudicate in the cases.

He appealed to the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Culture to as a matter of urgency and the Attorney General's Department to assist and recommend a legal practitioner to the House for appointment. Okatakyie Agyeman Kudom IV also Omanhene of the Nkoranza traditional area disclosed that the House had decided to present GHC2000 (20 million) cedis as part payment of a pledge it made to support the Catholic University College of Ghana of GHC6000 (60 million cedis) in 2001.

The gesture, the Omanhene indicated, was because of the interest of the chiefs and people of the region had in tertiary education. Okatakyie Agyeman Kudom IV commended the Regional Coordinating Council for sponsoring two nominees of the house to attend the 2007 Annual New Year School at the University of Ghana, January this year.