Adumase-Krobo(E/R), Oct. 27, GNA- The Vice-President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama has appealed to the Chiefs and people of Manya Krobo to exercise restrain over the land dispute over the limestone quarries project at Odugblase and allowed the committee set to look into the issue to conclude their work.

He gave the assurance that, he had been well informed that the committee working on the issue would be concluding their work by next week.

Alhaji Mahama was speaking at the grand durbar of chiefs and people of Manya Krobo Traditional Area at Odumase-Krobo on Friday organized to climax the celebration of this year's Ngmayem festival. For sometime now, there had been some misunderstanding between the people of Manya and Yilo Krobo over the rightful owners of the land being mined for limestone for the production of cement by the Ghacem Cement Works in the Krobo area.

As a result of that, the Eastern Regional Co-ordinating Council(RCC) establish a committee to go into the issue to establish the rightful owners of the land.

Alhaji Mahama said the government believed in the rule of law and that it would use legal means to ensure the resolution of the land dispute between Manya Krobo and Osudoku over some lands around Kpong and also the resolution of the dispute between Manya and Yilo Krobo Traditional Areas over Okwenya. He said the creation of new district was an on-going programme and urged the Manya Krobo Traditional Council to appeal to the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment if they feel strongly about the creation of a new district in the Traditional area.

Alhaji Mahama said the construction of the second water supply project for Koforidua, which takes its source from the Volta Lake at Anyaboni would ensure the supply of pipe-borne water for people in Upper Manya areas, including Mensah Dawa, Akatawia, Bonase and Asesewa. He said the project, which had been awarded to China Northwest Municipal Engineering and Research Institute for the expansion of the water intake at Kpong Headworks by 42 million gallons a day would also make available six million gallons of water daily for distribution to communities in the Manya and Yilo Krobo Districts.

Alhaji Mahama said to ensure that the Manya Krobo Traditional Area gets its fair share of the national development, the government had included the area in the implementation of projects under the Millennium Challenge Accounts (MCA).

He said the area is also to benefit from the European Union Micro Projects and the Town five Development Projects sponsored by the German Government, all of which had been scheduled to take off before the end of the year.

Alhaji Mahama urged the chiefs and people of Manya Krobo to be considerate when negotiating with prospective investors on the acquisition of land, particularly for agriculture and light industrial purpose and advised the traditional council to release parcels of land to the Manya Krobo District Assembly for the creation of land banks for the promotion of investment.

The Konor of Manya Krobo, Nene Sakite, II called for the inclusion of traditional authorities in the local government system and expressed the hope that if certain former powers like the Native Authority police were restored , the traditional authorities could help reduce the rising indiscipline in the country. He regretted the continuous low standard of education in the traditional area and urged the Manya Krobo District Directorate of Education to come out with a programme to help address the situation.

Nene Sakite said he had set up a committee to bring out the modalities for the establishment of a model secondary school for gifted but needy students in the traditional area and expressed the hope that such a programme could help train a large number of citizens of the traditional area who could become university graduates within a short time to take up leadership positions for the development of the area. He expressed concern about the neglect of the teaching of Dangme language in schools in the Manya Krobo District and called for the teaching of the language to be made mandatory in all schools in the Manya Krobo Traditional Area from basic to the secondary level. Nene Sakite explained that, the none teaching of Dangme in schools in the Manya Krobo District is a way of denying Manya Krobo children the chance of learning about their culture .

He said the Manya Krobo Traditional Area had met with all the conditions for the creation of a second district in the area with the capital at Asesewa to speed up the development of the traditional area and called on the government to respond favourable to the request of the people of Manya Krobo. 28 Oct. 06