Create another district out of North Tongu-MP

Page 14, Dec 6, 2007

Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
THE Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Mr Charles Hodogbey has advocated the creation of another district out of the North Tongu District to speed up the development of the area.
He said the constituency had the necessary requirements to have separate districts.
“Our people’s expectation and spirit were dampened when they were left out in the recent creation of districts. We appeal to the government to create separate districts for us without delay”, he said.
Mr Hodogbey made the appeal during the annual Ayimagonu Festival of the chiefs and people of the Dofor Traditional Area at Dofor Adidome.
He took the opportunity to renew his appeal to the government for the provision of basic needs of the people to enable the youth, in particular, to stay in the area and work instead of migrating into cities in search of non-existent jobs.
Mr Hodogbey stated that the Dofor Constituency, which had a total population of 85,000 did not have adequate supply of water.
The MP explained that the Three Districts’ Water Project, which catered for the North Tongu, Dangbe East and Dangbe West districts supplied water to just a small portion of the North Tongu Constituency.
He said the Dofor district, which had several water bodies, were polluted and was giving the people all kinds of water-borne diseases, including Bilharzia and Guinea -worm.
Mr Hodogbey expressed concern about the poor road network of the area and called for the tarring of the entire 34 kilometre road stretching from Juapong to Volo.
On electricity, the MP said the people of North Tongu had sacrificed so much for the construction of both Akosombo and Kpone hydro-electric systems.
He, however regretted that only a few communities in the area were currently hooked to the national grid despite the implementation of the Self-Help Electrification Programme (SHEP).
Mr Hodogbey, therefore appealed to the Minister of Energy to come to the aid of people in the district to enable them to benefit from their sacrifice .
The Paramount Chief of the Dofor Traditional Area, Togbega Komlaga Ribitim II, also reiterated the MPs call for the creation of another district out of the North Tongu District, saying that the district was too large to be a single district.
He called for the provision of enough school blocks and teachers’ quaters to boost education in the area.
The North Tongu District Chief Executive, Mr Moses Assem Mensah, urged the chiefs and people of the area to use the festival to plan development and to showcase the area’s tourism potentials.