The Eastern Regional Minister, Dr Francis Osafo-Mensah has suggested that those six assembly members of Manya Krobo district who had defected to Osu-Doku district, be sacked and bye-election be conducted to elect those who are prepared to work for the people of Akuse.

According to the minister, the assertion by those defectors that Akuse is part of Greater Accra is absolutely wrong, and that it could not be justified in any way.

Backing his argument with historical facts, Osafo-Mensah said what brought about the conflict between the people of Osu-Doku and the Manya Krobo goes back about a century ago when the former claimed that the Akuse land belonged to them.

He explained that the conflict went through the court in the then Gold Coast period and ended up at the Privy Council in England, which the Osu-Doku people lost.

At the third in the series of meet-the-press held in Accra yesterday, the minister stressed that since the people of Osu-Doku had lost the case years back there was no basis for them to attempt to reclaim Akuse. He added that a number of commissions had been set to probe the matter and that the last of such commission was the 'Nathan Quao Commission' whose report is yet to be published.

"The people are being sentimental about the issue, the Osu-Dokus are saying that those who live in Akuse are Gas and that the land belong to them, that is fine but that does not mean that the land belongs to the Gas," he stressed. "Everybody knows that Akuse is in the Eastern Region."

On the claim by the people of Osu-Doku that they have documents to prove that Akuse belongs to them, the minister challenged them to produce such documents.

According to him, his office is in possession of all the necessary documents on the issue and would produce them on demand. "So far as I'm concerned, we are just wasting time arguing over which region Akuse belongs to," Osafo-Mensah argued.

He attributed the conflict to the question of who is entitled to royalties from the Volta River Authority (VRA) but emphasised that the Nkrumah government, which constructed the Akosombo and Kpong dams, sought permission from the Manya Krobo traditional rulers.

The minister therefore did not understand why the people of Osu Doku were making such demands after the construction of the two dams.

Touching on the mass spraying of cocoa in the region, the minister acknowledged that there were inadquate logistics, as well as complaints about methods applied by those sprayers in mixing the chemicals.

He revealed that a cocoa producer buying company in Koforidua had introduced a scientist from abroad who was prepared to try a new method of controlling capsid instead of using chemicals.

He, admitted that though there were problems at the beginning of the exercise, this year's was better and was optimistic that there would be improvements in the coming years.

On education, the minister stressed that with the assistance from the GETfund, an amount of ?569 million has been spent on eight Senoir Secondary Schools (SSS) last year while ?2.6 billion has been approved by the government for the construction of three technical institutions, seven schools for the physically challenged, and 29 junior secondary schools.

He repeated the government's policy of elevating at least one SSS in each district to a model secondary school adding that an amount of ?825.234m has been earmarked for the completion of permanent office accommodations as well as bungalows for the district directorates of education.

On vocational education, he said that renovation works had been undertaken at Amankwakrom Fisheries Technical Institute and St Joseph Techincal School at the cost of ?240m.

On the state of the forests, which has become an issue of grave concern in the region, the minister stated that in order to enforce the ban on the use of chain saw to process timber, the region is strictly ensuring that the construction industry does not provide a ready market for the lumber as this has the ability to defeat the purpose for which the policy was instituted. He said that the region had designated 15 sawmills and firms to produce timber for the local market.

In another development, the minister said, with the exception of New Juaben Municipality which received ?1.5 billion, an initial amount of ?1 billion had been given to each of the fourteen districts as part of monies acrued from the HIPC funds.

He stated clearly that the fund is strictly meant for poverty reduction projects and that to check the effectiveness of the allocation of funds, the regional coordinating council had put in place a body to monitor its utilization.