Ketu South residents demonstrate over decision not to split district

Tension is mounting in the Ketu South District of the Volta Region over the deletion of the area from the list of districts to be split into two when the final legislation on a proposal was presented in Parliament. A large number of placard bearing residents clad in red armbands led by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) constituency executives of the area on Wednesday undertook a demonstration at Denu to register their displeasure and anger. Some of the placards read: “No Aflao Municipality, no vote”, “Ketu South deserves better” and “NDC be careful and cautious”. A special delegation led by the constituency executives of the party had since left for Accra to present a petition to the Presidency at the Castle. They earlier presented a copy to Mr. Bernard Amable, District Chief Executive (DCE) for the area at Denu. Mr. Marshal Ackumey, Constituency Chairman of the NDC, in the petition cautioned that failure to conclude the announced splitting of the district “will be most disastrous to the party as the heightened expectations and hopes of the people are dashed with the turn of events”. He said on the basis of population threshold and economic viability, the Aflao Municipality and the Klikor-Somey district from the current Ketu South district far outclassed areas in the Volta Region, which are benefitting from the proposal. “The same arguments hold for geographical contiguity and ethnic homogeneity of Ketu South compared to the other districts and why should it suffer deletion”, Mr. Ackumey asked. He said Ketu South in 2008 had the highest voter population of 60,000 compared to 13,000 of Adaklu Anyigbe, 25,000 for Krachi East, 30,000 for Kpando and 33,000 for Ave-Avenor districts which were all receiving attention. Mr. Ackumey said issues of boundary differences had long been settled and communicated to the government and the Electoral Commission and could no longer be an issue for holding up with the creation of a separate district. He accused some unnamed bigwigs in the government for the current stalemate. Mr. Amable receiving the petition, appealed to the residents to exercise restraint as government looked into their complaints, adding that government would not undermine the development of the area.