Some concerned residents of Afram Plains North in the Eastern region are aggrieved over what they describe as a misplaced priority on the part of some government officials in choosing Mem-Chemfre instead of Bruben for the Community Senior High School government is building for the district.
Their frustration is borne out of the fact that Bruben can boast of several social amenities that when the community senior high school is built there, it would provide motivation for the students and also spare them the hassle of trekking distances before they reach school.
Emmanuel Esenu Kubi, the spokesperson of the residents explained that though they welcome the gesture by the president, the choice of the local assembly to establish the school at Mem-Chemfre is worrying and therefore should be changed.
According to him, Mem-Chemfre unlike Bruben is confronted with serious water challenges and that the place also lacks access to market, clinic and other social infrastructure that will make life convenient for students in the area.
Mr. Kubi noted that the district police commander at the maiden celebration of the inter-tribal/ethnic festival at Bruben promised to give a police post to Bruben, a development he said gives more security to Bruben unlike Men-Chemfre which is bedeviled with so many challenges.
The spokesperson told the DAILY HERITAGE that while Bruben boasts of over 115 Dwarf Island communities surrounded by it, Mem-Chemfre has about 10 villages to back their claim.
He also told the paper that investors who graced their maiden Unity festival have pledged their support to build a hostel of about 100 rooms for the first years and also a-20-three-bedroom-self-contained apartments for staff of the school, within 12 months before the community school will be completed.
�Mem-Chemfre does not have any accommodation to contain the students, and the staff of the school. Fish and food are easily available at Bruben which are difficult to come by at Mem-Chemfre.
�There are many natural items of tourist attraction at Bruben which Mem-Chemfre does not have. The site the communities cleared for the community day senior high school at Bruben is 15 acres and the land remaining is about 70 acres on a beautiful high land,� he explained.
According to him, �About 300 farmers at Bruben have just submitted their names to start cultivation of cowpea to feed industries. Aqua-culture projects are at Bruben and the town�s people are enlightened and very friendly.�
�One hundred and over fishing communities of Adas, Ningos and Tongus on a peninsular called Dwarf Island were not connected by road. There are about 22 basic schools on this peninsular with most of the schools having only two teachers.
�Over 3,000 Ghanaian children of ages between 1-12 years on this peninsular are wasting. Teachers don�t accept posting to these communities because the communities are without access roads and electricity. There is very high infant mortality and death of pregnant women at Dwarf Island-Afram Plains North because health facilities are not at the place,� he lamented.
The leaders of the Dwarf Island communities are, thus, appealing to the government to call on the district chief executive in the area to relocate the community day senior high school to Bruben.
�Eighty-five to 90 communities of the Dwarf Island also are of the view that the central government should direct the DCE, Windham Emil Afram to relocate the community day senior high school to Bruben for them so that their children can have easy access to the school.
�The leaders of these communities complained bitterly that when they appended their signatures to a resolution letter about the relocation of the community day senior high school to Bruben, there were many threats from the DCE�s camp.�
The new emerging pressure group at Bruben and its surrounding communities are, therefore, calling on the presidency to order the DCE to relocate the senior high school to save the communities the hell of contributing their meager resources to battle the relocation of the senior high school at the high court in Koforidua.
�The presidency should also instruct the district assembly to focus on constructing roads to connect the 100 fishing and farming communities to open up the place to the rest of the country so that farm produce and fish can easily be carried from these communities to the rest of the world.�
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