Jasikan, May 14, GNA - Mr Isaka Buraima, President of the Coalition for Peace and Development in Buem (COPADIB), has reiterated the call on government to create a region for the northern part of the Volta Region to facilitate the development of the area. He expressed worry that previous governments, including the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and New Patriotic Party (NPP), have failed to consider petitions from the people of the area on the matter. Mr Buraima, who was speaking at a mini congress organised by COPADIB at Jasikan in the Jasikan District, urged government to seek the views of the people on the issue, which according to him were solely motivated by development concerns.

He said that even though the request was a constitutional issue, "It might generate public debate so the people of northern Volta should be given the opportunity to justify their demand. "Social and political commentators might only succeed in speaking on behalf of the people but not necessarily for the people," he added. Mr Buraima said Ho, the regional capital, was too remote for the people of northern Volta, hampering administrative work and development. He said the northern part of Volta was the food basket of the region and contributed to national development but lacked good roads and other infrastructure to ensure meaningful development. Mr Buraima stressed that "the creation of a new region would ensure the rapid realization of government's decentralization policy and equitable distribution of the country's resources in line with the Directive Principle of State Policy as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution of Ghana."

Naval Captain Beick Baffour of the Ghana Navy, a member of the Coalition, said the area was suitable for the cultivation of varieties of crops and raising of livestock so he urged government to support the farmers to increase their output.

Mr Alfred Adzomani, District Director of Agriculture, advised farmers in the area to combine the cultivation of stables like cassava, maize and yam with the production of cocoa and other cash crops to enable them to earn more income to improve their standards of living.