Zebilla (U/E), April 28, GNA - The Member of Parliament for the Bawku West Constituency, Mr John Ndebugre, has held separate meetings with chiefs and assembly members to solicit their assistance in mobilizing the people of the constituency for the development of the district.

He also publicly declared his quarterly amount of 45 million cedis from his share of the MPs Common Fund and urged assembly members to bring the concerns as pertains in their electoral areas.

Mr Ndebugre who called the meeting at his residence in Zebilla, said it was through their mandate that he is in Parliament and pledged to carry out his duties in a non-partisan manner.

He said his objective is to make the people understand his role as an MP that would not draw him into conflict with the laws of the land. Mr Ndebugre said as an MP, he does not enact laws but act in concert with his colleagues to pass bills. Therefore, people should refrain from approaching him with their chieftaincy matters and criminal cases. However, he promised to help them in solving genuine cases brought before him.

The assembly members tanked the MP for the meeting saying this is the first time an MP has made himself accessible to them to enable them to express their concerns.

The problems they enumerated ranged from lack of teachers in schools, armed robbery, the invasion of Fulani herdsmen on their farms, bad roads and inadequate dams for irrigation purposes.

A former DCE, Mr Sulley Agholisi, who was present at the meeting appealed to the assembly members to educate their people on the destruction of the environment.

He said many economic trees are being destroyed while trees in the forest reserves are being cut down for sale to mitigate hunger. An Assistant district Director of the Ghana Education Service, Mr Anthony Aboku, denied an accusation that his directorate's inability to recruit many pupil teachers for training was deliberate and causing poor performance in schools.

He said out of 38 people who applied for the job, 35 attended the interview and were recruited.

Mr Aboku said the district was in need of teachers and have no justification to turn away people who are qualified and willing to teach.