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General News of Thursday, 12 April 2018

Source: ghananewsagency.org

Commission of Enquiry holds final sitting for North East Region

Chairman of the Commission of Enquiry, Justice Stephen Allan Brobbey Chairman of the Commission of Enquiry, Justice Stephen Allan Brobbey

The Chiefs and People of the proposed North East Region (NER) has presented their final evidence on the need for the region to the commission of enquiry into the creation of new regions.

Professor John Sulemana Nabila, the Spokesperson for the NER, said the most important thing in their request was the substantial demand and need to promote unity among the various ethnic groups.

He said looking at the vast nature of the Northern Region, the NE part was underdeveloped and the hugeness was not allowing any form of adequate distribution of resources to the Mamprugu area.

Prof Nabila said the current Northern Region was one of the poorest and had been quoted on various platforms, but with an area of 70,384 kilometre square, distance from Bungrugu Yunyoo, Chereponi and Nakpanduri was over 270 miles to the Regional capital, Tamale.

“Critical government offices especially Lands Commission, Ghana Tourist Board, Controller and Accountant General Department and many others were all inaccessible because of the distance to Tamale from the proposed NER.

“Travelling on poor roads for five hours to the main Regional capital, as a result of transacting business or accessing government services turns out to be very expensive and stressful due to the bad state of the road”, he added.

Prof Nabila said health services, key to the survival of every human being, were in a very poor state and many hospital facilities, especially for Mamprugu Moaduri, Chereponi and Bunkpurugu Yunyoo were under resourced and unable to meet the needs of the people.

“The proposed North East Region cannot boast of even one government hospital that can attend to our referrals and some major health needs, it is only the Tamale Teaching hospital that accommodates all the surrounded districts.”

He said access to potable drinking water by the communities was a problem and the global demand on meeting the Sustainable Development Goals would not be met in some of these areas.

The Spokesperson said ground water levels were known to be the best in the Northern Region with aquatic large enough to irrigate several thousands of hectares.

He said education, which is key although free now, some schools in the region can hardly have access to some educational facilities.

The Junior High School students in the Northern Region record higher school drop-out rate and the performance of various schools were low.

He said North East part of the region was blessed with mineral potentials, including gold, limestone, dolomite, granite and clay, diamond and hydrocarbons in the Mamprugu area, which can attract foreign exchange to the country.

There were contributions from Hajia Alima Mahama, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development and Member of Parliament (MP) for Nalerigu/Gambaga Mr Salifu Saeed, Northern Regional Minister, Dr Banbangi, Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture and MP for Walewale, Solomon Boah, Deputy Northern Regional Minister and MP for Bunkrugu and Group Captain Ernest Nakubu (Rtd).