Sankore (B/A), Dec 19, GNA - A group calling itself "Concerned Citizens" of Sankore, Kokooso and Abuom all in the Asunafo District has petitioned President John Agyekum Kufuor to overturn the decision to make Kukuom the headquarters of the new district carved out of the Asunafo District.

The petition dated November 25 and signed by Mr Kwame Frimpong, Mr Farrouk Aduse Poku and Mr Kwadwo A. Dwumaah was addressed to the President of the Republic and copied to the Local Government Minister; Electoral Commissioner; Chief Justice; Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister; New Patriotic Party (NPP) General Secretary; Asunafo District Chief Executive (DCE) and the Media.

The petition sought to crave the indulgence of the President to rectify "the sad blunder of choosing Kukuom" as the capital for the new district as carried by the "Daily Graphic" of Thursday, November 20. "We humbly state that the choice of Kukuom as the new district centre is wrong because Kukuom is only nine miles from Goaso which is the capital of the Asunafo District now being partitioned to create the new district", the Concerned Citizens added.

The petitioners went further to explain that the location of a local council at Kukuom in 1965 by the Convention People's Party (CPP) Government was only meant to punish the people of Sankore for their unflinching support for the United Party (UP) which was then opposed to Dr Kwame Nkrumah's CPP.

The petition argued that Sankore was geographically more strategic for the job since four of the new district's six Area Councils are almost of equal distance from Sankore.

According to the petitioners, records from the Asunafo District Assembly indicated that Sankore area alone provided 40 per cent of Asunafo's internally-generated revenue while that from the Kukuom area was below 15 per cent, a clear evidence that Sankore was better endowed to host the district headquarters.

The petition described the decision to choose Kukuom as an ''aggravation of an earlier decision to upgrade the Kukuom Agricultural Secondary School to a model status to the neglect of older secondary schools in the district.''