- Mills’ convoy obstructed
- Ato Arthur blasts Trad. Council

Confusion rocked the heavily-attended famous Oguaa Fetu Afahye durbar grounds at the Victoria Park in Cape Coast when a number of incidents marred the beauty of the festival last Saturday.

First at the centre of attraction was Mr. Stephen Asamoah Boateng, Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, who for over 15 minutes refused to come off his Toyota Nissan Patrol because the chiefs were not present at the durbar grounds when he arrived.

It took the intervention of the Central Regional Police and the Cape Coast District Commander, Mrs. Rose Bio Atinga, and Dr Dam Para, as well as Nana Ato Arthur, Central Regional Minister, to persuade him to alight.

Mr. Asamoah Boateng who looked very agitated eventually took his seat to wait for the traditional rulers.

Then came Professor John Evans Atta Mills, whose public convoy was stopped by the police from entering the durbar grounds, thus drawing a lot of attention to them.

The regional commander and her men were instructed not to allow the former Vice President’s vehicle to enter the durbar grounds.

The car had to reverse and drove at a snail’s pace to the far end of the park where he passed through a gate and entered.

The ex-Vice President nonetheless went ahead and greeted all government officials at the high table and paid his respects to the traditional leaders gathered Professor Mills had been in the ancient city since last Thursday where he toured a number of areas in the municipality with a huge cloud following him. He had earlier participated in a fund raising ceremony at Chapel Square where he presented ¢5 million and assorted drinks to the Oguaa Traditional Council.

Nana Ato Arthur marred the occasion when he launched an attack against the Traditional Council for being ungrateful to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) regardless of the number of developmental projects that had sprung up in Cape Coast since the party came into power.

The Traditional Council had stated in its brochure that government had failed to fulfill a promise of building a stadium in Cape Coast, although the Oguaa Omanhen, Osabarima Kwesi Atta II, did not mention anything of that sort in his short speech.

The Chronicle has learnt that ¢45 billion had already been spent for the construction of a road to link the Accra-Takoradi highway with the stadium at the center of the storm.

The stadium, according to the paper’s source, had not been awarded on contract.

Mr. Asamoah Boateng took the stage and promised that government would not renege on its promise to build an ultra modern stadium for the people of Cape Coast.

He expressed worry about the portion of the brochure that implicated the government of not doing its best for the Cape Coasters and said the proposed rehabilitation of Queen Victoria, where important political rallies were held, would cost an estimated ¢12 billion and it would soon be on tender.

The Minister appealed to the people of Cape Coast and all over the Central Region to do away with the notion that the region was lagging behind others, citing rehabilitation of water projects and the construction of Mallam-Yamoransa highway as some of the initiatives President Kufuor’s administration were taking to reduce poverty among the inhabitants.

Asabee, as he is popularly known, donated ¢10 million and a carton of schnapps to the Traditional Council towards their celebrations.

Member of Parliament for Cape Coast, Ms Christine Churcher, who was swept away by cabinet reshuffle last April was conspicuously absent throughout the celebration, sending tongues wagging.