The District Chief Executive (DCE) for South Dayi District in the Volta region, Patrick Ernest Kwadjo Mallett has been accused by the Headman of Dzemeni, Togbe Mawufeame Castro Medeale, for not releasing some Ghc20,000.00 premix fuel profits made for development of Dzemeni.

According to Togbe Mawufeame, who doubles as the Chairman of the Dzemeni Landing Beach Committee (LBC), the DCE has refused to release the funds for providing social amenities in the community with reasons unknown to the Committee, since he DCE took office.

" … This fund belongs to the community, according to the Legislative Instrument (L.I. 2233, of National Premix Fuel Committee Regulations) this money is supposed to be saved here but he went and save the money at Agric Bank in Kpeve so people are not happy about it because we have projects to undertake here, like E.P JHS, Primary together, they don't have a latrine, if in terms of going to ease, they (pupils) have to cross (major road) about 80 meters, 60 meters, even far to go to toilet over there. We put to him that as the DCE, they should come and help us build this latrine for the pupils, and he refused, we want to build for Ansuarriyyah Islamic school, he refused, so we are pleading to the DCE to come and give us our money" he noted during a press conference in Dzemeni on Wednesday 3, June 2020.

Togbe Mawufeame further indicated that, should the money be given to the Committee for development, they will undertake other interventions to ease hardships in the area.

"Water is also a problem to this community, so we should have a water project doing, we have a plant which was serving the community but has also broke down, so if we have such money, we can use it to buy whatever spoilt on the machine to repair it," he said.

Togbe Mawufeame accused Hon Mallet, who is also the Parliamentary Candidate for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the area, for having intentions to use the money for political campaign activities, therefore, he will not be allowed to campaign in the area while they will file legal action against him.

"…. Now the communities are agitating to go to court, to sue him of the money to come and explain why he should keep the money because according to the L.I, has not right to have possession of the money. If he doesn’t give us the money, my people are saying they will prevent him from campaigning in the town, a lot of people are angry with him because of his behaviour of such money he is holding" he emphasized.

The Chief Fisherman of the area, Loli Robert, said the National Premix Fuel Secretariat has ordered the use of the funds for development in the area but the DCE seemed to be reluctant.

"… by 2019, our attention was drawn by the National Premix Secretariat to use the money to start projects, since he came to office, he has hijacked the money that belongs to the community, the money, our share was not given to us, but the L I says any place the premix has been sold, the money should be used to develop that community but now the money is not along the lake, it is at Kpeve, we don't know how the DCE have to hijack the money and put it in that central account there for since he came to the office, no development," he said.

Robert Loli revealed, their main reasons of chasing the funds are, when schools were running, some pupils were knocked by motorists and vehicles while in attempts to cross the road to have access to latrine and Islamic Community basic school was ripped off by storm, a situation which has forced learning and teaching under a pavilion made out of old materials.



The Headman started building a six-unit classroom block to replace the deteriorating facility but has since been stalled due to lack of funds to pay the contractor. The Headman, his elders and Chief Fisherman begged the government and the Ministry of Fisheries to intervene in the development to take the money for the community.

The DCE's response

In an engagement with the DCE on Thursday 4 May 2020, he denied the allegations and believed that they are just mere accusations to destroy his image.

" We are in political game, I'm the candidate for NPP and so if people are ganging up to try to make it political, I see it as politics, I see it as dirty politics that they're playing around," he said to a team of Journalists.

He admitted that the fund is not Ghc20,000.00 as alleged by the Chief but he (the DCE) is "expecting an amount of Ghc150,000.00 in the account", he further noted that, even out of the money he is expecting to be in the account, an amount of Ghc91,000.00 only has been banked as at December 2019. Mr Mallet said, out of the Ghc91,000.00 an amount of Ghc56,000.00 was withdrawn from the account without his knowledge.

On his part, he called on the LBC for meeting on several occasions to answer questions on the withdrawal of the Ghc56,000.00, but they (LBC) failed to give reasonable answers.

The DCE noted that the case is before the Volta Regional Minister, Dr. Archibald Yao Letsa and the Fishery Ministry already, hence he will wait for orders from these two authorities. He also accused the conveners for rather misusing the funds hence he has facts to present at the court when called on him.

“This issue has generated a lot of heat, the regional minister, my party executives, everybody has come in and are handling it and I don't think it's right for me to be talking about…”

“… these are issues that I'll prefer to produce in court, not in the public domain,” he noted.

Currently, there are four premix fuel sales points in the South Dayi District, Landing Beach Committee West, North, East and South all situated at Dzemeni and per the L.I 2233, monies made from these sales points are meant to develop the community.