Students Union urges residents to show interest in referendum to pave way for Oti Region

The National Union of Oti students has entreated all who stay in the yet-to- be created Oti Region to remain focused and support the creation of the new region.

The students say they have noted with dismay claims by some prominent persons against the creation of the new region as a result of what they call untenable reasons that do not the decision to create the region.

They want the people to disregard such claims and rather show keen interest in the process by taking part in the referendum that will ultimately shore up development and improve their livelihoods.

The students drawn from Santrofi, Akpafu, Lolobi and Likpe held the news conference at the University of Cape Coast.

The convener of the students, Enoch Lelabi Kwadzodeh, who addressed the news conference said the students were excited when news broke about a petition submitted to the President by their chiefs and opinion leaders pushing for the creation of the new region.

"We were excited because we feel it's long overdue. Our communities have been lagging behind for a long time. We are urging our people to go in their numbers to support the creation of the Oti Region. We need development," he said.

The students say failure on the part of the people who support the creation of the region to take part in the referendum will defeat their objective.
"We entreat all to note that, the die is cast and the window of opportunity to determine whether to be part of the Oti boundary or not is long gone and the only remedy available is for them to exercise their constitutional right by voting in the referendum whether NO or YES, " stated.

The students have catalogued the reasons below for the creation of the Oti Region.

Power to make decisions: The new region will afford us the power to decide which priority areas to apply our resources to and since SALL is being carved out of Hohoe, we will become orphan thereby the COI has recommended that we be granted a constituency and a district. This will help accelerate development in the area.

Makes administration closer to the people: Convenience and mobility is one of our biggest challenges, travelling from Kpassa to Ho for example is just like traveling from Ho to Takoradi in the Western Region and this is affecting productivity in the region.

Education: The proposed oti area has lots of deficit in educational infrastructure and architecture. Out of 96 high schools in the region, 17 are in the Oti area whilst 79 are in the south. Our area is a heavy cocoa producing area but only a paltry few benefits from government cocoa scholarship package with majority of the beneficiaries from non-cocoa growing areas.

Health: We again suffer mortal wounds when it comes to doctor to patient ratio, hospitals, clinics etc. when SALL becomes a district, we will get our district hospital and its ancillary materials.

Road Infrastructure: Our road network is nothing to write home about especially the infamous Eastern Corridor. We suffer to cart our produce, timber, etc to the market. We are one of the largest food baskets of the nation. With 59% total landmass, out of 585km of tarred roads in the region, oti area has 105km.

- Employment prospects etc.