… Afadzato DCE palaver muddies waters

By Korku Devitor

There is a simmering conflict in the Volta Regional town of Kpeve over which district it belongs to.

The selection of the District Chief Executive for the New Afadzato district seems to be resurrecting the age-old boundary demarcation and chieftaincy dispute in the twin town.

While Kpeve Old Town has been part of the Hohoe Municipal Assembly, its other half, Kpeve New Town, now serves as the capital of the new Afadzato District in the South Dayi District.

Efforts by the chiefs and elders of the twin-town, which naturally belongs to the same traditional area, to get the matter resolved have met with an iron curtain.

A traditional ruler (name withheld) who spoke to this paper lamented that there seemed to be some ‘powerful’ interest groups who would want to maintain the status quo for personal gain.

When the Hohoe District was created, Kpeve Old Town, which used to be under the Kpandu District, was brought under the Hohoe District while Kpeve New Town remained with Kpandu.

However, when Peki allegedly protested against the choice of Kpeve New Town, which was referred to as a ‘half town’ as the district capital, the ‘two’ Kpeve townships then came together to write a joint letter to parliament in 2008 that they would agree to be united under the new South Dayi District. However, according to Lawyer Kodzokumah Dzanku, counsel for the traditional council, the letter sent to parliament by then Minister for Local Government, Kwadwo Agyei-Darko could not be acted upon before it attained 21 sitting days in the house.

“Since then, we have been struggling over this issue as Kpeve itself belongs to a larger lineage called Kleviawo with Klefe, Tsibu, Tsohor and Klikor as the other members,” he intimated.

The type of confusion in the area was typified during the recent Population and Housing Census (PHC) when enumerators in both towns could not decide on which district to place a particular portion of the town and therefore numbered the houses there as simply part of the Volta Region.

“Majority of us from Old Town would have liked to join their brothers in South Dayi but it has been said that there are some ‘powerful people in Kpeve Old Town who do not want the town to be added since they risk losing their privileged positions,” one resident told this paper.

Most of the residents spoken to cited the Assembly Woman, Edith Akpto, who also doubles as the Presiding Member of the Hohoe Municipal, Regional Coordinator of the School Feeding Programme and teacher at Mawuko Girls Senior High School in Ho.

In fact, the Regional Minister, Joseph Amenowode, was said to have been seeking to make her the Municipal Chief Executive for Hohoe but this fell through when President Mills nominated one Dr. Quarcque for that position. “There is however a grand plan to make Edith Akpoto who hails from Kpeve Old Town the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Afadzato district, and so her home town must necessarily remain within Afadzato for her ambition to be fulfilled. When contacted, Madam Akpoto said the primary problem in Kpeve was chieftaincy, with the New Town people claiming a paramount stool status.

She however conceded that the South Dayi Municipal Assembly offices were even built on parcels of land belonging to natives of Kpeve Old Town. Source: The Lead