CREATION OF BIAKOYE DISTRICT GENERATES AGITATION... Page 20

Story: Tim Dzamboe, Ho

THE creation of the Biakoye District from the Jasikan District under a new legislative instrument has generated agitations over the siting of the district capital at Nkonya.
Although the people of Nkonya, Tapa, Bowiri, Worawora and Apesokubi traditional areas had all welcomed the creation of the new district, the people of Bowiri, Worawora, Tapa and Apesokubi were against the siting of the capital at Nkonya with varied reasons.
Last Monday, a letter addressed to the regional editor of the Graphic Communications Group in Ho indicated a petition by the Bowiri-Kwamekrom Concerned Citizens’ Association to the effect that they were against the capital being sited at Nkonya.
The petition which was jointly signed by Mr Solomon Yao Danquah, chairman, Mr Edwin Asamoah, secretary and Mr Bright Yao Mensah, organising secretary, of the association, said it congratulated the government for creating the new district because it demonstrated the government’s commitment to the development of the constituency.
The petition, however, stated that it was against the siting of the capital because Nkonya was a conflict zone and could not guarantee a congenial atmosphere in which workers of the new district assembly could dwell and work without fear of terror.
It said the geographical position of Nkonya, so far as the head office of the new assembly within the Biakoye Constituency was remote and therefore, could not promote any convenient administrative justice.
It further stated that there was no marketplace in Nkonya for the generation of revenue as compared to Kwamekrom or Tapa-Abotoase which had large markets for that purpose.
According to the petition, Bowiri-Kwamekrom is geographically centrally situated, with a large market, adding that it had a town council and was the most populated town in the whole constituency.
The petition appealed to the government, as a matter of urgency, to dispatch without delay a fact finding team to the constituency to recommend a suitable headquarters for the Biakoye District Assembly, which could be either at Tapa-Abotoase or Bowiri Kwamekrom.
The petition was addressed to President Mr John Kufuor, and copied to the Minister of Local Government, the Volta Regional Minister, the Jasikan District Chief Executive, Chiefs of the Biakoye Constituency and the media. Another petition from the people of Worawora had vehemently protested against the siting of the capital at Nkonya.
In a petition against the creation of the Biakoye District, jointly signed by the chiefs, it stated that all the chiefs had agreed that the capital of the district should be sited at Worawora because of the availability of infrastructural facilities ranging from a hospital, police station, rural bank, senior high school, Ghana Water Company sub-station, Ghana National Fire Service, a rest house, among others.
Signatories to the petition in 2000 were the late Tapamanhene, Nana Ogrowhe Anyenam Kwaku Boateng II; Omanhene of Nkonya, Nana Okoto Kofi III; Omanhene of Bowiri, Nana Kwaku Salo II; Omanhene of Worawora, Daasebre Asare Baa III; and Omanhene of Apesokubi, Nana Kwasi Dente Kataboa II.
The petition also drew the attention of the government to the fact that there had been a protracted dispute between the Nkonyas and Alavanyos, over land issues spanning some 80 years.
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