Tumu Kuoru pleads with government to revamp factory

By Bajin D. Pobia, GNA Tumu, March 20, GNA - The Tumu Kuoru, Kuoru Richard Babini Kanton has pleaded with government to revamp the defunct Cotton Ginnery in Tumu.

He said the ginnery has the potential of producing variety of products apart from the ginning of cotton and could serve as a livelihood for the people in the district.

The revamping of the factory under government's one district, one factory policy would provide income opportunities and ensures the sustainability of cotton production in the Upper West Region.

Kuoru Kanton made the request at the annual celebration of the Paari Gbielle festival of the chiefs and people of the Tumu Traditional Area on Friday in Tumu.

Kuoru Kanton also said the Sissala East District was endowed with sheanut production but that its potentials had not been exploited to benefit the people.

He therefore encouraged government to develop the sheanut industry in the area, to provide jobs for the youth and reduce migration and also empower women economically to reduce poverty.

The Tumu Kuoro, who is also the President of the Upper West Regional House of Chiefs and a Council of State member, appealed to government to consider adding the Nurse Assistant Clinical (NAC) programme to the Tumu Midwifery School, to enable many more students to be enrolled to produce more medical personnel for health facilities in District in particular and Ghana as a whole.

He said Tumu, being the district capital of the Sissala East District, is strategically located between Upper West and Upper East Regions and needed a well-equipped hospital to take care of the numerous accident and other emergency cases recorded on the roads, which were in deplorable conditions.

'Most patients who are also referred from the Tumu District Hospital to other hospitals especially the Regional Hospital in Wa, die on their way because of the deplorable nature of the road leading to the regional capital,' he said.

Kuoru Kanton said currently, some work was ongoing to tar the major trunk roads linking Tumu to the other districts in the Region and the Upper East Region, but expressed disappointment at the slow work rate at which the project was being executed.

He appealed to contractors implementing the Tumu-Navrongo and Tumu-Jeffisi-Wa, Tumu -Wellembelle-Wa and Tumu-Gwollu-Wa main road projects to expedite action to ensure the early completion of the projects.

Serious attention should also be given to the construction of feeder roads in the District to put them in good shape to facilitate government's 'Planting for food and jobs' policy to boost agricultural production.

On the provision of water, Kuoru Kanton said the old dam which is the source of water intake for the Tumu Township was silted and needed to be rehabilitated into an irrigation facility to supply water for domestic consumption and for agricultural purpose.

The festival was characterised by drumming and dancing, praise singing, musketry, licking of red iron, and among them was the famous chewing of a dead dog and a goat by warriors of the Tumu Kuoru.

The festival attracted people of all walks of life from the entire country and beyond, with the Kusawgu Wura, a Gonja Chief and a playing mate, Vagla Community who are compatriots of the Sissala from Northern Region, and Kansena from the Upper East Region who are also playing-mates of the Sissala graced the occasion.

GNA