Category: News

The Assembly members of the Krachi East Municipal Assembly (KEMA) yesterday elected the presiding member, Oklu Rockson through a conscientious vote and confirmed the nomination of the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Charles Gyemfi Boateng.

After closed of polls for the confirmation, the new MCE secured about 29 votes representing 96.6 percent as compared to a single ballot against representing 3.4 percent while the total valid votes were 30 members from various electoral areas across the Municipality.

The appointment of Mr Boateng comes after the untimely demise of the former MCE, Bernard Mensah Aborkugya last month after succeeding the late Francis Okesu who also died somewhere 2023.

An official of the Electoral Commission in the Municipality first opened nomination for the election of a Presiding member of the assembly after the Assembly members failed on several occasions to meet the threshold of electing a presiding member since the local assembly election held last year.

But yesterday, the election was conducted by a secret ballot while the Nominee who went unopposed secured a two-third majority of the assembly members from various electoral areas in the Municipality.

At the end of polls, the Presiding member acquired 28 votes representing 93.3 percent as against two no votes representing 6.7 percent of the total eligible and valid votes of 30.

Immediately after the election, the new presiding member was duly sworn an oath of alligance and the oath of office to assume his new role.

The PM elected thanked the members for reposing confidence in him and charged the members to eschew partisanship and focus on the development as well as projection of the Krachi East Municipality. 

In his acceptance remarks, the new MCE bemoaned the negative effects on governance and administrative activities in the Municipality following the demise of his predecessor.

Adding that such setbacks will now be a history hence the need to hasten slowly, as the assembly cannot at the same time afford to leg behind.

“It is our duty to improve the quality of life of the people in the municipality through the provision of essential services and creation of an enabling environment to ensure the total and sustainable development of Krachi East,” he said.

The address he noted was not intended to really introduce any programs that are different from his predecessors had pursued in the past, but there was need for the Assembly’s core business may be changed

He continued that his outfit is poised to bring team spirit and passion to drive the new Development agenda for the Krachi East Assembly.

Mr Boateng explained that the essence of decentralization is to make the downstream structures of local governance stronger in order to bring democracy and development closer to the people.

“We shall therefore ensure that, sub- committees, town councils and unit committees are adequately resourced to enable them discharge their functions efficiently and effectively,” he assured.

He underscored the need for a comprehensive needs assessment to be carried out to determine the specific areas the assembly members, the sub-committees, town-councils

Conclusively, the program ended successfully.

These beneficiaries of the Productive Inclusion Project, who come from the five communities of Dormabin, Tokurano, Kpelema, Katanga and Kunda would venture into piggery, soap making, groundnut processing, cassava processing, vegetable farming as well as poultry.

He encouraged beneficiaries to make good use of the opportunity the Government of Ghana and World Bank have presented so as to be self-sufficient all the time. He announced that, their performance in this phase would serve as a yardstick to measure their preparedness for the second tranche of support to be extended.

Above are the images of the programme.

His delegation was in the region to commence preparatory works for the All Regional Games, a nationwide sports festival, scheduled to have its first trials in the Oti Region.

DSP Daniel Machator (Rtd) commended Asamoah Gyan and his team for the initiative.

He pledged the Oti Regional Council’s willingness to support the team every step of the way as sports serves as not only a tool for employment creation, but as a tool that promotes national cohesion.

He also stressed the need for more investment in sports infrastructure and programs to help unearth and nurture talents in the region. As the beginning point for the games was a unanimous one, signalling the love his team had for the region and its people.

He was positive that, though a young region, could put together a solid team, strong enough to win laurels.

Mr Daniel Machator also expressed his happiness towards the establishing of DVLA regional office in Oti which will ease the automobile and motor bikes registration that has been a challenge to the people of Oti.

Mr Daniel Machator ended his remarks by urging the DVLA to speed up the construction of the office to end the stress the people of Oti go through during automobile and motor bike registration at Ho.

The DVLA board chairperson Mr Frank Davis Esq in his remarks lamented that, Oti Regional DVLA office would have been completed in 2023 but the conflict of siting at ORCC hindered it.

The DVLA board chairperson also requested for the president representative Mr. Daniel Machator to get him a satellite office for his officers to begin with operations.

He ended his remarks by assuring the people of Oti that, DVLA was going to put up a state of art of which construction will start by July 2024 and completed before December 2024.

After inspecting a Guard of Honour mounted by the cadet corps, the Hon. Minister took the opportunity to advise the young para-military drill enthusiasts on the need to take their training regime seriously as such training builds trainees into strong-willed individuals who grow into change-makers.

Among important lessons, He told them the training would equip them with included humility, time management and performance under pressure, fighting fatigue and stress, building confidence in oneself and supporting colleagues as they charge together towards the end goal.

The Oti Regional Minister commended Mr. Leopold K.A. Ansah, a retired Director of Prisons, for devoting his time to building a battalion of regimented youth who have the tendency of affecting society positively.

The Oti Regional caretaker minister Honorable Dr Archibald Yao Letsa in his address said president Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo Addo requires competent and proactive persons to take charge of the various Assemblies to execute his national developmental and transformation agenda. Hence,  the appointment of Bulator Kwaku Patrick for Krachi West and  Felix Owusu Gyimah for Nkwanta South to unite the people behind the government developmental agenda.

Dr Archibald Yao Letsa also advised the two new MCEs to be in haste in transforming the living conditions of people in their Municipals because there were a significant number of interested persons in their Municipals ready to over their positions if they fail to work up to the president’s expectations.

Dr Archibald Yao Letsa again reminded all the MDCEs present that, the sustainable development of Oti Region was a collective responsibility of Assembly Members,  women, youth, Non-governmental organisations NGOs, civil society organisations, religious organisations, associations and appealed to them to be humble, transparent and accountable in the execution of their duties as MDCEs.

In addition,  he advised MDCEs to use innovative ways to improve upon the performance of their revenue mobilisation to implement more developmental and social programmes and projects in their various Assemblies.

On Peace and Stability,  Dr Archibald Yao Letsa appealed to the chiefs and people of Oti, especially Nkwanta South to give peace a chance to prevail in order to pave way for development because peace was the hallmark of development in every community.

On the physical projects, he told the public that, his government was committed to working and completion of the Nkwanta – Dambai Road, Kpassa – Nkwanta Road, Oti Regional Coordinating Council and Kpassa District Assembly Office Complex.

Dr Archibald Yao Letsa ended his address by assuring the people Oti that Volta Region was going to collaborate with Oti as her younger sister Region regarding development. For the forgoing he appealed to collaboratively institute Oti Trade Fair as they have Volta Trade Fair to showcase Oti as the food basket of Ghana and promised to support the Oti Regional Minister nominee, Honorable Daniel Machator in all aspects of administration as his son.

The Oti Regional Minister nominee, Honorable Daniel Machator in his remarks thanked the president for nominating him as Oti Regional Minister and congratulated the two new MCEs.

Honorable Daniel Machator appealed to the people of Oti, Chiefs and Technocrats in the region to support him as a son and brother to administor Oti well after his vetting. 

He ended his remarks by assuring the president and the people of Oti transparency,  accountability,  inclusive governance, informed decision making and hard work towards “breaking the eight “.

The newly sworn in MCE for Krachi West Municipal Honorable Patrick Kwaku Bulator in his remarks on behalf of his colleague Honorable Felix Owusu Gyimah thanked the president for the confidence reposed in them and assured him of hardwork towards “breaking the eight”.

He ended his remarks by expressing their heartfelt appreciation to their respective Assembly Members, chiefs stakeholders and people for their confirmation and pledge to working with them towards accelerated development in their various Municipals and Oti at large.

Conclusively the swearing in of the two MCEs and formal introduction of the Oti Regional Minister nominee to the public ended successful.

This performance contract is a contractual agreement that binds all staff of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies particularly the Political Heads, that is the Municipal and District Chief Executives and the Administrative Heads, Municipal or District Co-ordinating Directors to effectively carry out their mandates in accordance with the Service Delivery Standards of the Local Government Service.

This forms the framework for Transparency, Accountability and Professionalism to the people they serve.

  1. All the paramount Chiefs of the feuding factions were going to sign a declaration committing to the peace process. 

  2. The Chiefs will also be committed to avail themselves for any committee and delegation put together to engage them as a result of wanting to ensure peace in the Nkwanta town and its environs.

  3. The Chiefs will be committed to getting back to their people in the various communities to call on them to lay down their arms even if the Regional Security Council has to provide security for each of the groups to go to their various communities to engage them. 

He ended by cautioning the media to report only on the three points he made and nothing else for the sake of peace. 

The attendance of the meeting was made up of the Oti Regional Minister Honourable Joshua Gmayenaam Makubu as the chairman, the Nkwanta South Municipal Chief Executive Honourable Bright Lenwah, the paramount Chief of Akyode traditional Council Nana Obombo Sewura Lupuwura II, the Chief of Adele in Nkwanta Nana Gyemburah II,  the Chief of Challa Nana Addo Kenewu Cheddere II and the Regional heads of security agencies in Oti Region. 

Above is a screenshot of the declaration signed by the Chiefs and images of the meeting. 

He ended by urging all members and heads of departments to actively participate and contribute to interest and development of Oti Region. 

The Oti Regional Minister Honourable Joshua Gmayenaam Makubu in his speech made reference to section 186 of the Local Government Act 936 of 2016 and article 255 of 1992 constitution which mandates all the RCCs to organize at least two ordinary meetings in a year and the responsibility of the House to ensure that the gains made from the creation of Oti Region is sustained.  

With peace and security, the Honourable Joshua Gmayenaam Makubu called on all the participants, Civil Society Organisations, religious bodies, to get involved in their own ways to bring peace to Nkwanta and appealed to the feuding parties to bury their differences and promote peace. He urged all the traditional areas with land dispute to resort to legal procedures for amicable resolution. 

With development partners,  Honourable Minister briefed the House the NGOs that are currently in partnership with the Region to be Plan Ghana implementing water sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programme in Jasikan Municipal, enrolment of Krachi East,  Nkwanta South and Nkwanta North Districts of  Oti Region onto United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) 8th country programme which is focused on maternal health and adolescent empowerment, Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion SOCO seeking to improve infrastructure development, Regional collaboration, socioeconomic and climate resilience of border-zone communities in the targeted regions Districts.

In Education, the Ghana Education Service office complex and Senior Staff bungalow have been reassigned to a new contractor due to delays and work is steadily progressing. He added that, BECE performance has been improved from 55.3% in 2020 to 65.1% in 2022 and WASSCE from 45.7% in 2020 to 66.6% in 2022. 

 According to Honourable Joshua Gmayenaam Makubu, the Senior Staff bungalow and office complex of the Health Directorate at Worawora have been completed and handed over to ORCC. He added that the Oti Region has only thirty-five (35) doctors which is woefully inadequate and ORCC will continue to champion the course of getting doctors posted to Oti.

With roads, the following are roads under reconstruction and rehabilitation.  Jasikan to Worawora is slowly progressing and under City Construction, Jasikan to Dodi Pepesu under Sinohydro, Nkwanta to Dambai has vacated his site and ORCC is lobbying to get a new contractor, Nkwanta to Damanko was China Jianxi International Corporation and contractor has left site, Dambai town roads contractor has also left site and ORCC is working to bring him back to site and Krachi town roads by First Sky has been completed.

The Oti Regional Minister also lamented that, most of the government projects that have abandoned by contractors are for some politicians which they intentionally delay the project after taking the contract funds which makes it difficult for ORCC to follow up. He appealed that, government to awarding contracts to politicians of all the political divide. 

Honourable Joshua Makubu made it clear that, or his three years in office, there has been no political dispute except land and Chieftaincy disputes.  He there tasked the Regional House of Chiefs to investigate all the land and Chieftaincy disputes in Oti, report to Regional Security Council for resolution. 

With judiciary, five (5) courts have been completed and commissioned by former chief justice. 

With the Environmental health, Honourable Joshua Makubu lamented about work of zoomlion in Oti, the refuse disposal at the Regional capital and tasked the environmental health unit to provide him with a report on the work of zoomlion in Oti. 

With water and sanitation according to Minister, RCC will collaborate with its development partners such as UNICEF, World Vision and Global Communities to implement Community Led-Total Sanitation (CLTS) and the WASH programmes in Oti Region. 

He ended his address by tasking the House of Chiefs to address the matter of some traditional authorities hijacking markets and making it difficult for Assemblies to raise revenue or else the Oti Regional Coordinating Council will walk over any Chief who will hinder the revenue mobilization in the markets.

This performance contract is a legal document which binds all staff of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District assemblies particularly the Political Heads, that is the Municipal and District Chief Executives and the Administrative Heads, Municipal or District Co-ordinating Directors to effectively carry out their mandates in accordance with the service delivery standards of the Local Government Service.

This document was signed in the presence of all the Human Resource Managers and other Key Staff which symbolises the right to request for transparency, accountability and professionalism to the people they serve.