Kete Chief Calls The Bluff Of Togbe Afede

By Bernice Bessey .
The Chief of Kete in the Krachi West District of the proposed Oti Region, Major Abu Safiano Baba (Rtd), has replied the Asogli Paramount Chief, Togbe Afede XIV, and other Southern Volta chiefs who are against the creation of the new region, that Ketes don't owe them any allegiance.

Chief Baba, being particular about Togbe Afede's faze about the new region, said having listened to him over the period, it was high time they set the record straight that no chief in the Oti enclave owes allegiance to the Southern chiefs.

According to him, although he respects Togbe Afede as the President of the National House of Chiefs and Member of the Council of State, the Kete community and its people on the other hand, are also entitled to their own beliefs and opinions, so they cannot be subjected to another person's trajectory.

The Kete Chief was speaking at a media conference to pledge he and his peoples' support to the creation of the Oti Region, which he described as being long overdue, yesterday in Accra.

Replying Togbe Afede's unwelcome comments about the creation of the Oti Region, he added that the President of the National House of Chiefs occupies an important position in the country does not make them (Ketes) subservient.

The Kete Chief, also speaking against the views shared by some Volta chiefs, said: “There is absolutely nothing unlawful or unconstitutional about the processes that have been observed so far towards the creation of the proposed Oti Region.

“The creation or alteration and merger of regions, as we all know, are guided by the very elaborate provisions of Article 5 of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic, which spells out all the detailed processes to be followed to achieve that end.”

He indicated that the Kete people, with other ethnic groups in the Oti enclave, Volta North, occupy over 59 per cent of the total land size of the Volta Region, yet they are lagging behind with respect to development.

Comparably, South Volta has 30 courts, 49 health facilities, 7 colleges of education, 15 nursing/midwifery colleges, 25 district police commands, five Divisional police commands and one police training school.

There are also 79 government Senior High Schools, three university campuses, 107 doctors, 480 kilometres of tarred road, doctor to patient ratio of 1:16, 000, and five technical institutions.

However, this is against the odds of Northern Volta, where there are, 9 courts, four health facilities, two colleges of education, one nursing/midwifery college, four district police commands, one divisional police command, and zero police training school.

Sadly, there are 17 government Senior High Schools, no university campuses, 7 doctors, 105 kilometres of tarred road, doctor to patient ratio of 1:105,000, and technical institutions, none.

This, he added, are the main drives compelling the people in the area to crave for the creation of the Oti Region, and not for other purposes as was being suggested by adversaries.

“It is our firm conviction that there cannot be any legal basis to justify the opposition to the creation of the proposed Oti Region. It is, therefore, not surprising that the focus has, rather worrying, shifted from legal grounds to one ethnicity, mudslinging, threat of conflict, and petty politicking orchestrated by some of the people of Southern Volta.”

He continued: “These anti-Oti agenda pushers have taken their absurdity beyond ethnicity into the realm of partisan politics, accusing the NPP government of advancing a political motive. “They pretend to be unaware of the fact that the people of the Oti enclave had, since the Second Republic, been making incessant demands on the various governments for the carving out of a new region from the Volta Region.”

In the light of this, he said the creation of the Oti Region is a must, and appealed for more than 80 per cent yes votes in the pending referendum, slated for December 27, this year.