New districts not meant to satisfy chiefs and landlords

Wechiau (UW), April 10, GNA - Mr Kwadwo Adjei-Darko, Minister of Local Government and rural Development on Thursday emphasised that the creation of the new districts was to facilitate local administration and development and not to satisfy any traditional authority or landlords.

He said chiefs and landlords whose subjects and lands had been placed in other districts would never lose control over them when the new assemblies were inaugurated.

Mr Adjei-Darko said this when he addressed a durbar organised by the chiefs and people of the newly created Wa West District to welcome him to Wechiau on the last day of his four-day working visit to the newly created districts in the Upper West Region.

The Wa West District is made up of the Wechiau and Dorimo Traditional areas and some villages under the Wa paramountcy. He cautioned litigants who had chieftaincy or land cases in court not to think that such cases would automatically end with the creation of the new districts.

Mr Adjei-Darko said the NPP government would never interfere in chieftaincy and land issues and would only intervene in such matters when the security of the state was threatened.

Mr Adjei-Darko said the greatest achievement of the NPP government had been the freedom of speech that now prevailed in the country.

"Though freedom of speech is a fundamental right in the constitution, it takes minds to put it in the constitution and minds to take it away," he noted.

Mr Sahanun Mogtari, Upper West Regional Minister said with the creation of the district, Wechiau would get all the basic social amenities to befit its status as a district capital.

He appealed to the people of the area to reciprocate the government's gesture by voting for it in the next elections and be sure that the area would see rapid development.

Naa Imoro Nandom Gomah II, paramount chief of the Wechiau traditional Area assured the government that the people were prepared to meet the challenges of the new district.

Naa Gomah appealed to the government to establish a senior secondary school at Dorimo to supplement the one initiated by the Catholic Church at Lassie-Tuolu and also rehabilitate the roads, dams and dugouts in the area. Mr Adjei-Darko paid similar visits to Funsi and Gwollu in the Wa East and Sissala West districts respectively where he inspected structures and interacted with the chiefs and people.