SDA Angry With DCE

The Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church has taken a swipe at the Jaman North District Chief Executive (DCE), Hajia Amina Amadu for diverting a GETFund school project meant for the Duadaso No. 2 SDA Primary School, near Sampa in the Brong Ahafo region, to a different school for unknown reasons. Documents available from the GETFund named the Duadaso SDA No.2 Primary School, which is in a deplorable state, as one of the four beneficiary schools which were captured by the GETFund to be provided with a modern school building. Each of the schools was to benefit from a modern school building comprising six classrooms, office, store and other ancillary facilities estimated at GH�110,000. However, upon the approval of the project in April 2010, the DCE, in a show of power, single-handedly diverted the project to a different school which already has a good structure. When members of the Jaman North District SDA Schools Management Committee detected the anomaly, they made several attempts to meet the DCE to resolve the matter, but Hajia Amina Amadu refused to meet them. Several letters that officials of the church wrote to the DCE did not yield any positive results since she blatantly refused to respond to the letters. Following this development, the church is considering instituting legal action against the DCE so as to get back what is legitimately theirs. A press conference the church planned to hold to make public their concerns was also countered by the DCE as she allegedly ordered the police to stop the church from organizing the said press conference. The police issued a letter warning the church to refrain from holding the supposed press conference, stating that it may cause mayhem in the area. Speaking to Daily Guide at Sampa, the Chairman of the Jaman North District SDA Schools Management Committee, Robert Sammor-Addai, said the church feels cheated and very much aggrieved. �We have been discriminated against because a project bearing the name of the church has been diverted to different people, they have robbed us.� According to him, the DCE has resolved not to engage the church in any dialogue to address their concerns. He therefore appealed to NGOs, corporate institutions and other organizations to construct a new school building to improve conditions at the school. When DAILY GUIDE visited the school recently to access the situation, the school authorities expressed grave concern about the development, as the school building had became a death trap. The headmaster of the school, Daniel Kwasi Mensah, said teaching and learning in the school with a total enrollment of over 340, has seriously been affected by the poor infrastructure. He noted that both teachers and pupils are at the mercy of the weather, stressing that anytime it rains the school has to be closed down because of dilapidated building. Teaching and learning materials and textbooks have also been destroyed as they have been soaked in rain water due to the lack of proper places to store them. When Daily Guide visited the Jaman North District Assembly, the DCE was said to have travelled. However, attempts to reach her to react to the issue proved futile as her phone was switched off.