Buipe (N/R), April 5, GNA – Mr. Issifu Salisu Be-Awuribe, the District Chief Executive for Central Gonja, has condemned some chiefs in the area for the wanton and indiscriminate sale of large parcels of land and said such acts were unacceptable and denies future generations opportunities for development.
He said most landed properties were vested in families and clans and must therefore not be sold on large scale else it deprives the future generation of their economic needs and warned that if the practice was not stopped, they might become strangers in their own lands in the near future.
Mr. Be-Awuribe, who was addressing the ordinary meeting of the Central Gonja District Assembly meeting at Buipe on Thursday, said he was not against the sale of land to investors and developers but the spate and scale was too much.
He said he anticipated a revolution by the future generation to reclaim their possessions should the spate of land sale by the chiefs continued.
The DCE spoke about projects he had undertaken over the past four years and these include projects in education, health, roads, water and sanitation.
He mentioned the construction of six-unit classroom at Kopedeka, construction of six-unit classroom at Gbovukpo, extension of electricity to 15 communities on the Mpaha road, tarring of 34.5km Mankpang-Debirport road, construction of four-unit nurses’ quarters at Tuluwe, provision of solar street lights for Yala, Nyantang, Chama and others.
Mr. Be-Awuribe expressed worry that despite numerous education infrastructure that had been provided, the district lacks adequate teachers to teach pupils resulting in some of the classrooms being empty while those with teachers were too many pupils per class for a single teacher to handle.
He said his four-year administration came with some challenges which include the politicization of all major issues in the district including even revenue collection and this had made revenue generation difficult and that chieftaincy and religious conflicts also impacted negatively on the progress of the area.
Alhaji Amadu Seidu, the Member of Parliament for Yapei-Kusawgu, said land degradation was fast affecting the lifestyle of the people and blamed the situation on the illegal lumber activities in the area.
He said illegal rose wood cutting was going on in the area and operators with impunity and questioned why such situation should be allowed to go on when the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) is undertaking a forestation project.
Alhaji Seidu appealed to the Ghana Education Service to post more teachers to the district.
GNA