Creation of Ahafo Region long overdue – Petitioners

The wait for the creation of the proposed Ahafo Region out of the Brong-Ahafo Region, is no longer bearable as far as the chiefs, indigenes and opinion leaders in the Ahafo part of the Brong-Ahafo Region are concerned.

Spokesperson for the petitioners who are calling for the carving of the Ahafo Region out of the Brong-Ahafo Region, Nana Ansah Adu Baah II, Omanhene of Yamfo, said this in an interview with DAILY GUIDE yesterday at the Osu Castle, Accra. That was when the petitioners appeared before the Justice Stephen Alan Brobbey’s nine-member Committee of Enquiry on the creation of new regions, to make their case on why they think there is the need for the Ahafo Region to be created.

According to him, the creation of the Ahafo Region is long overdue and that the people of Ahafo had for the past 31 years suffered disappointment from successive governments in honouring their plea to have the region created.

“The creation of the region is long overdue and the President (Akufo-Addo) even said it when he came there so it’s long overdue. We want a separate region, a separate region should be carved out of the Brong-Ahafo Region for Ahafo people,” he said.

The Justice Brobbey Commission was formed by President Akufo-Addo under Constitutional Instrument (CI) 105 to among other things, inquire, pursuant to petitions, into the need and substantial demand for the creation of new regions and, thereby, the alteration of the Western Region, Brong-Ahafo Region, Northern Region and Volta Region. About six proposed new regions are on the table for their creation to be defended by the petitioners before the commission.

It is the same CI 105 that mandates the commission to make recommendations to the president, based on its findings, and to specify the issues to be determined by a referendum and the places where the referendum should be held – when it makes recommendation for the creation and alteration of regions.

At its first sitting on Tuesday, November 21, the commission met with petitioners from the Western Region who are pushing for the creation of the Western North Region, and on Wednesday, November 22, it granted petitioners from the Volta Region – who are calling for the establishment of the proposed Oti Region out of the Volta Region – the opportunity to make their case.

The meetings are being held in camera and journalists are only allowed to cover the introductory sessions and have brief interactions with the petitioners.

Genesis

The Omanhene of Yamfo reported that since the days of former Presidents Hila Limman, Jerry John Rawlings and John Agyekum Kufuor, the people of Ahafo had been consistently filing petitions, calling for the establishment of the Ahafo Region but nothing has been done in that direction.

Asked what they were taking to the negotiation table before the commission, Nana Ansah Adu Baah II said, “All that we are going to say is that we have written so many petitions to the government from President Dr. Limman’s time. We have written to former President Jerry John Rawlings, we have written to former President J.A. Kufuor and now we have written another one to President Nana Akufo-Addo.

“All what we are saying is that the region is so big that the regional minister cannot finish everything before his tenure ends. So we need a separate region; we want development in our area, the region,” according to him.

Aside the size of the region, “we want development, that is all, schools, universities, hospitals, roads and good drinking water.”

Other petitioners are Nana Fosu Gyeabour Akoto II, Bechemhene; Nana Osei Kofi Abiri I of Kenyasi; Osuodumgya Barima Appia-Dwaa Boafo, Omanhene of Hwidiem Traditional Council; the youth and other opinion leaders from the area.

3 More Petitioners

The second petitioners from the Brong-Ahafo Region (Bono East) are expected to appear before the commission Tuesday, November 28, at the Osu Castle when it returns from break, to also make their case. They will be followed by petitioners from the Northern Region (Gonja Land) on November 29, and on December 5, those from Mamprugu side of the Northern Region will take their turn.