Nana Kwabena Oduro Mensah, Gyaasehene of Ofoase, in the Akyemmansa District of the Eastern Region on Wednesday expressed his displeasure over the late arrival of the Eastern Regional Minister to a meeting with 16 other chiefs in the area.
The Chief expressed his sentiments to the Minister; Ms Helen Adjoa Ntoso and her entourage, after waiting for her over three hours with the other chiefs.
Nana Mensah said he and his colleagues had commuted from various communities to Akyem Ofoase to wait for the minister and could not understand why after waiting for so long, they (the chiefs) were not given the chance to fully voice out their needs to the Minister, because her assistants claimed she had a ‘tight schedule’ and wrapped up the meeting.
“For the love we have for the Minister, we left our various communities, even at a very short notice and came to sit here since 1100 hours waiting for her.” “Now she is here and you are fast tracking to end the meeting without allowing us to tell her what is bothering us.”
He told the Minister that the district was lagging behind in terms of development and that she should as a matter of urgency, assist Mr Tom Budu, the District Chief Executive (DCE), to speed up the development of the area.
He said ever since the district was created, “nothing” had been done to improve the bad road network in the area, adding that, as a farming community, they found it difficult to transport their produce to the marketing centres.
Nana Oduro Mensah expressed the hope that the Minister would work hard to bring development to the district, saying, “Ministers have come and made promises to us to develop our areas but they go and we never see any of the promises being fulfilled.”
Obrempong Dubin Nti, the Paramount Chief of Akyem Ofoase, also added his voice to their plight, saying that, for the past five years, the district “had not seen any thing called development and due to that investors were not attracted to do business here.”
“Please focus on the works of the DCEs in the region, especially this area to ensure that funds meant for development are used appropriately; we are thirsty for development,” he said.
The Regional Minister apologized to the chiefs for coming late and assured them that she had taken cognizance of their challenges and would give them updates in due time after her familiarization tour.
She urged the chiefs to work hand-in-hand with the district assembly and to foster peaceful co-existence by offering pieces of advice and direction to the public servants any time the need arises “because you are very vital in the running of the local administration.”
Mr Tom Budu led the Minister and her entourage to inspect some completed and ongoing projects in the district.
The projects include a district administration block, a bungalow to house the Coordinating Director and a police accommodation, which are all being constructed with the District Assembly’s Common Fund.
He expressed gratitude to the government for awarding the Akyem Chia - Akyem Ofoase- Akyem Ayirebi roads on contract and gave the assurance that the contractor is on site and fixing the culverts on the roads.
Source: GNA
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