Category: News

The Oti Regional Coordinating Council organized a Regional Security Council meeting on a consensus peace agreement with regards to Nkwanta ethnic conflict today Wednesday January 10, 2024 at the Oti Regional Minister’s office. 

According to the Oti Regional Minister Honourable Joshua Gmayenaam Makubu, the following consensus peace agreements were reached. 

Read More

  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. 

The Oti Regional Coordinating Council (ORCC) held its second Regional Coordinating Council meeting at its conference hall yesterday Wednesday December 13, 2023 to identify challenges of the Region that have not been solved and also find solutions to them before the end of 2023.

The Chief director of ORCC Mr. Issaka Braimah Basintale in his opening remarks told participants that, it was mandatory for all the members and heads of departments to be present unless they seek permission from Minister to be absent. 

Read More

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.

On Thursday, 02-03-2023, the Oti Regional Minister, Hon. Joshua Makubu and the Ag. Chief Director, Mr. Henry Yao Amesimeku led the Municipal/District Chief Executives in the Oti Region and their Co-ordinating Directors to sign their performance contracts.

Read More

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.

The Oti Regional Minister, Hon. Joshua G. Makubu on 24th November, 2022 presented ten (10) desktop computers to the DACE Demonstration School, Dambai to facilitate teaching and learning in the area of ICT.

The desktop computers were presented to representatives from the Demonstration school at the office of the Hon. Regional Minister. The presentation was done with the assistance of the Regional Coordinating Director, The Regional Finance Officer, MIS officer and some staff of the RCC.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the press,

I seize this opportunity to welcome you all to this press briefing on the demise of a member of the council, Hon. Francis Kofi Okesu and former Municipal Chief Executive of Krachi East Municipal Assembly and the Dean of Municipal and District Chief Executives (Oti Region).

The sad event occurred on Sunday, 4^th September, 2022 in Kumasi, Ashanti Region after he took permission from the Hon. Regional Minister on Friday, 2^nd September, 2022. The body has been deposited at a morgue in the Okomfo Anokye Teaching Hopital for an autopsy and investigation surrounding the death.

While the government of Ghana, Regional Security Council (REGSEC), family members of the deceased and sympathizers are waiting for the outcome of the investigations, certain media houses are peddling unfounded reportage on the cause of death. REGSEC wish to register its displeasure as follows;

1. The reportage had been hasty and prejudicial.
2. The reportage has the tendency to aggravate the existing grieve in the family.
3. The causes adduced by these media houses are strange and aimed at character assassination
4. the REGSEC had not known the deceased with those negative attributes and members feels it is not a true reflection of the man, Hon. Francis Kofi Okesu.

For a better way forward, REGSEC wants to state that the trip the deceased undertook was legitimate and dissociates itself from the unprogressive reportage and demand for the following;

1. An apology from the underlisted media house(s) to the deceased, the family, REGSEC and the entire Oti Region i.e;
   • The Daily Graphic (Dailygraphiconline)
   • Joy News (Myjoyonline.com)
   • Daily Guide newspaper
2. A retraction of the relevant reportage.
3. Media house must be circumspect in dealing with matters related to such challenging issues.
4. Failure to adhere to the call(s) shall give us cause not to listen, engage the affected media houses in our programs and activities any more.

REGSEC wants to call for calm from the aggrieved parties or persons who have been affected by the misleading reportage of those media house.

May the soul of the Hon. Francis Kofi Okesu rest in perfect peace. Thank you.

HON. JOSHUA GMAYENAAM MAKUBU (CHAIRMAN/REGSEC)

The District League Table (DLT) is a tool developed for tracking national development and highlighting Districts that are performing well and those which are handicapped in terms of wellbeing of their population. The DLT ranks Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) on selected sector-based indicators in order to highlight performance of the districts.

On Monday 23rd May, 2022, the National Development Planning Commission held a one-day workshop to pre-launch the preparation of the 2021 District League Table Report and also disseminated the 2020 report. The Objective was to dialogue and inform the national level actors, especially MDAs and MMDAs on the selected indicators to assess the disparities and inequalities and use this to review current frameworks for policy dialogue as well as generate concrete programmatic suggestions.

At the workshop, the outcome of the previous report (2020 DLT report) was presented to participants. The presentation presented the regional DLT scores and ranking, the regional performance in the assessed areas as well as the district scores and rankings of the districts in the Oti region.

Yendi – Wednesday, February 9, 2022: Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) have been charged to ensure harmonious working relationships with traditional authorities as indispensable partners for effective decentralized local governance. The charge was given by the Minister for Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, (MLGDRD) Honorable Daniel Botwe when he paid a courtesy call on His Royal Majesty, Ndan Ya-Na Abubakari II, King of Dagbon at Gbewaa Palace in Yendi.

The visit was to pay homage and inform him about an ongoing training programme for MMDCEs from the Upper West, Upper East, North East, Northern, Savannah, and Bono East Regions. The course which began on Tuesday, February 8, 2022, sought to among others create a platform to share experiences for feedback; deepen understanding of local governance, development management, and their responsibilities in the implementation of government flagship programmes.

Honorable Daniel Botwe was accompanied by two of his Deputies, Honorable O.B. Amoah, and Honorable Collins Ntim, the Northern Regional Minister, Honorable Shaibu Abubakar Saidu, the Head of the Local Government Service, Ing. Dr. Nana Ato Arthur, other government functionaries, and some MMDCEs.

Honorable Botwe praised the King for his continuous counsel, direction, and advice as well as other traditional leaders whose efforts have contributed to national development over the years. He entreated the MMDCEs to regularly engage, build effective and cordial relationships with them to ensure their support in the performance of their roles.

Ya –Na Abubakari II through a spokesperson commended the government for empowering the MMDCEs to effectively perform their roles. He also commended pragmatic steps being taken by the government to address the perennial water crises during the dry season and the limited electricity coverage within the Yendi Municipality and its environs. He requested government through Hon. Botwe to expedite work on the Yendi Water supply system and the Rural Electrification projects to make these challenges a thing of the past. Ya -Na expressed optimism that the execution of the two projects would alleviate the plights of the people of Yendi.