Archives 2015

The District Chief Executive for the Ahanta West District in the Western Region, Joseph Dofoyena, has been been confirmed by Assembly members after he was renominated by the President, following his removal from office in February this year [2015].

He polled 34 out of 51 last Friday’ when assembly members voted to endorse his nomination.

After the news of his sacking, several petitions were sent to the presidency and the local government ministry for him to be reinstated.

“He is a true son of Ahantaland. He is respectful, hardworking, easily approachable and we have seen no wrongdoing on his part. We want the President to reconsider his decision,” Nana Etsin Kofi II, chief of Ahanta Aboadze told Citi News.

Background
Following his appointment in June 2013, the Member of Parliament for the Ahanta West Constituency George Kwame Aboagye accused him of sabotaging his work. It continued in 2014 when the two at some point were involved in accusations and counter accusations on radio.

The enmity is alleged to have stemmed out of the fact that Joseph Dofoyena supported George Kwame Aboagye’s contender Lawyer Sam Payin Yalley in the 2012 NDC parliamentary primaries. In early 2015, the MP, George Kwame Aboagye openly vowed on radio to get him out of office. He was thus blamed when the dismissal occurred.

Party
His exit, which had obviously surprised many party executives and sympathizers in the Ahanta West constituency led to the creation of factions within the umbrella fraternity. Many NDC foot soldiers who were not enthused by the turn of events in the constituency, vowed not to vote the MP George Kwame Aboagye into office come 2016.

“We will vote skirt and blouse next year. There are plans that others will transfer their votes to Tarkwa to support Kwame Dzokoto instead of voting in the Ahanta West,” Some angry youth told Citi News.

His re-nomination
The president after nine months re-nominated Joseph Dofoyena for the post of DCE for the district for the second time. In all these period, persons close to the DCE maintained that the reason for his removal was not disclosed to him. Persons who had worked to get him reinstated jubilated when the DCE’s name was mentioned among other MMDCEs for reinstatement.

MP vows to resign
After his re-nomination by the president, the Member of Parliament for the Ahanta West Constituency, George Kwame Aboagye who was criticized for being the brain behind his exit openly vowed on various radio stations to resign as MP if the president did not rescind his re-nomination.

Out of the 51 assembly members who voted last Friday to confirm or deny Joseph Dofoyena as the DCE, 34 members voted “yes” whilst 17 voted “No.”

Regional Minister bars him from negative radio commentary
After his massive endorsement by the assembly, the western regional minister Paul Evans Aidoo cautioned the DCE not to speak about internal party matters on radio. Anytime that I hear Dofoyena speaking on radio about the problems in the party, I will petition the president to sack you from office. Speak about only the development of the Ahanta West District on radio and not anything else.”

NDC constituency executives demand MP’s resignation
Shortly after the DCE’s confirmation by the assembly, some executives of the NDC in the Ahanta West constituency led by Eric King Arthur, a former director of elections for the constituency, demanded the immediate resignation of the MP.

They argued that “he [MP] went on radio to tell the whole world that if the DCE is brought back to head the assembly he will resign from his post. We are calling on him to honour his words immediately because, assembly members have confirmed the DCE. If he does not resign, we will lead a campaign to vote against him in the 2016 general elections.”

citifmonline.com

Mr Akwasi Opong-Fosu, Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, on Thursday said a comprehensive policy on Local Economic Development has been finalized.

He was speaking at the opening ceremony of the three-day 2014 Regional Ministers conference at Busua in the Ahanta West District.

Mr Fosu said the policy is expected to be disseminated to Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAS) to improve the local economy.

He said a lot had been done to further deepen the decentralization process and the local governance system in the country.

Mr Fosu said notable among what was being done were the implementation of the reviewed decentralization policy framework and action plan, the formulation of a comprehensive Urban Development Plan and the implementation of the street naming and the property addressing system in the MMDAs.

He said his Ministry had also put together a team of experts to work on the Draft Consolidated Local Government Bill and the Draft National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) Regulations and the National Development Planning System Regulations to smoothen the rough edges in the implementation of the country’s decentralized governance and local government administration.

Mr Fosu said a lot of resources were transferred by his Ministry to all MMDAs to pursue various development programmes and projects last year, despite the challenges and these had yielded some dividends at the local level.

He said this year, a number of activities would be carried out by his Ministry in collaboration with other partners and the most crucial one was the District Level Elections, which would be organized by the Electoral Commission.

He urged the Regional Ministers Conference to support the Ministry in this regard for successful elections.

Mr Ebenezer Teye Addo, Western Regional Minister, said about 401 km of the region’s total trunk roads of 1,642 km were at various levels of construction at a total cost of 735 million Ghana Cedis.

The roads under construction included the Tarkwa-Bogoso-Ayanfuri road, which had the “Appearing almost in all annual government budgets, since independence and had never seen the light of day”, he said.

Mr Addo said, “This 93 km road was under construction and was expected to be completed by July 2016, according to the contractor and consultants of the project”.

He said government was in the process of rehabilitating another 160 km of trunk road under the Oil Enclave Roads.

Mr Addo said a total of 679 km stretch of feeder roads in the region were at different levels of construction and rehabilitation and these would cost government 131 million Ghana Cedis.

He said five different water supply projects were under construction in five communities and these projects were expected to be completed within eight months.

Okogyeman Kwaku Gyamprah III, Member of the Council of State and Omanhene of Sefwi Chirano Traditional Area, who presided, said good governance entailed efficient and effective use of resources and as such, government was expected to enhance grassroots participation in decision making for national growth and development.

He said in addition, government had to pay attention to perceived corruption in the country, adding, unfortunately, corruption was often associated with politicians and in this way, giving the impression the rest of the society was not involved.

Okogyeman Gyamprah said, “It is my believe that for the fight against corruption to succeed, we must go beyond the politician and look at society as whole as well as the judiciary, public service, the Church, media, civil society organizations and the chieftaincy institutions”.

GNA