Upper East Youth Group To Demonstrate Over Abandoned Factories

A youth group in the Upper East Region is angry about the abandoned factories in the region, and has given the government a one-week ultimatum to revamp those factories or it would hit the streets on demonstration.

The members of the group, Progressive Youth Alliance of Upper East, say they are not happy about the fact that those factories are left to rot, when they could have been revamped to provide jobs for the people of the region, and also to reduce poverty.

The Secretary to the group, Mr. Latif Solomon, said his youth group was demanding an explanation from the government for the abandonment of the factories, especially, when lack of jobs was forcing young men and women to migrate to the south.

The abandoned factories are the Meat Processing factory at Zuarungu, which has been closed down for so many years, the Northern Star Tomato Processing Factory at Pwalugu, which has been closed down due to what its management claimed was lack of raw materials, and a Rice Processing Factory also at Zuarungu.

According to Mr. Latif, this was the second time they had planned to demonstrate after their first attempt was foiled by the police, who explained that the ongoing Election Petition hearing at the Supreme Court made it inconvenient.

He accused the government and its officials of ignoring the concerns of the youth on the said factories, and stated that since tension on the election petition hearing was subsiding, it was only proper that they be allowed to embark on the demonstration to make their concerns known to the government and its officials who have not shown any commitment towards the development of the region.

Some tomato farmers at Pwalugu say although the machines at the Tomato factory were functional, they were yet to see any products from the company.

According to them, the closure of the factory had affected the cultivation of tomatoes on a large scale, and this has adversely affected them.

The factories, which were established in the 60s by Ghana's first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, as part of his seven-year development plan, had been left to rot by successive governments, despite several promises.

The equipment used at those factories, especially the meat factory at Zuarungu, have become obsolete - they have rusted and most of them will have to be changed should any effort be made to revamp the factory.

The Upper East Regional Minister, Alhaji Mohammed Limuna-Muniru, confessed that he had not visited those factories since he resumed office a few months ago, but pledged to do so at the end of the month.

Meanwhile, some leaders in the region have already started efforts at convincing the youth group to rescind its decision, and allow them engage the necessary players to come in.

Alhaji Mohammed Limuna-Muniru said he had not visited the factories, but told Accra-based Joy FM that he was in talks with the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority to engage the services of a consultant to conduct feasibility studies at the factories for possible measures to be taken to revamp, if not all, some of them.