Accra, June 28, GNA - Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Minister of Tourism and Modernisation of the Capital City, on Tuesday appealed to the elders and youth of the Ga Mashie Community to support the Bukom Square Regeneration Project, aimed at wealth creation. He said the project, which was also aimed at boosting tourism in the area would involve the people in the community to ensure proper management while it gave employment to them.

Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey made the appeal when he met the chiefs and people of the community to explain the project and to appeal to them to support it. The meeting followed protest by some people in the community that they would not allow the project to move on smoothly because the Ministry did not contact the true owners of the land.

According to the people, the land belonged to the Asere Clan, hence the need to meet them and formally explain the project to them. The Minister said his Sector was ready to support any movement aimed at reuniting the people, adding that if the people supported the project it would become a model for other developing countries. "Within one week let me hear from you on how you will like us to move the project forward together," Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey told the people. "We will not pay any chief any money; every penny that we pay will be on the project. We will not pay people off to accept the project in this community," the Minister stated, following rumours that he had paid the chiefs money to accept the project. He said Ga Mashie was full of history and it was important that tourists shared the rich history.

Mr Philip Amankwaah Yeboah of Philiyanco Co Limited, the contractor for the project, told the Ghana News Agency that the land was handed over to him on March 24 2005, but the people were not allowing the project to go on. According to him, sometimes people attacked his workers when they were on site so they had to stop the project. Nene Adamafio II, Head of the Asere Clan, appealed to the youth in the area to support the project.

The five million-dollar Bukom Square Regeneration Project would seek to regenerate the Bukom Square, by building a Hall of Fame where all renowned boxers from Bukom would have their profiles. The Ministry would also rehabilitate the public toilet at Bukom and source loans for a big deep freezer for coconut sellers.