Mr. Dominic Azumah, a Minister of State at the Office of the President, has said the Government did not create the new districts to favour the National Democratic Congress above any other party in the December Polls.

He said it adopted the same formula that was used by the previous regime to create districts between 2001 and 2008, therefore, its creation could not be driven by political expediency.

Mr. Azumah said this during an interaction with reporters at Wa, after he with Mr. Elvis Afriyie- Ankrah, a Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, had visited two newly created districts in the Upper West Region to assess their preparedness for the inauguration next month.

The two districts have been carved out of the Lawra and Nadowli districts with their headquarters located at Nandom and Issa, respectively.

He said the sheer size of some of the older districts meant that they could not be overlooked in the creation of districts as the government had a clear objective to spread development to all parts of the country.

“As long as people want development, you have to have a way of meeting them if they qualify for districts to be created in their areas, but it is left to Ghanaians to place a ceiling on the number of districts that can be created,” he said.

Mr. Afriyie-Ankrah, said 120 areas applied for districts but only 46 were created, pointing out that, districts served as growth pillars for development and the people could not be denied if their areas qualified.

Mr. Kale Cesar, Upper West Regional Deputy Minister, said those who were criticizing the creation of the districts were not being charitable to those demanding the districts, saying there should be no question of ceiling as the population of the country continued to grow.**