Lolobi celebrates Ipor-Rice festival - Raises funds for medical staff accommodation
The chiefs and people of the Lolobi Traditional Area in the Guan District have held a durbar to climax their annual Ipor-Rice festival at Lolobi-Kumasi in the Oti Region.
Advertisement
Ipor, which means sacred, is used to describe a special day set aside to celebrate their migration to their current settlement. During the period, they feast on rice which is used in various dishes and showcase them.
This year’s Ipor-Rice festival was held last Saturday to solicit funds to complete work on three separate houses they are constructing to accommodate medical staff who have been posted to manage their clinic.
All citizens, both home and abroad, have been levied for the three houses which have been estimated at GH¢ 900,000. At the moment, the clinic has only one nurses’ quarters, which is inadequate for the 18 medical staff comprising the midwife, 11 nurses and six auxiliary staff. Most of them are accommodated far away from the clinic.
Water shortage
Addressing the people, the District Chief Executive of the Guan District, Janet Obro Adibo-Goka, said the government was committed to solving the acute water shortage in the district with the provision of several boreholes, and that Lolobi would not be left out.
Some of his elders and queenmothers at the ceremony
Apart from that, she said they were lobbying for funds to commence a water project in the area. She also called on those who had now attained 18 years and those who had not yet registered to register in the ongoing limited registration exercise.
The Paramount Chief of the Lolobi Traditional Area, Nana Akoto Masakyi III, lamented that their eight years without a Member of Parliament (MP) had deprived them of a lot of developmental projects that would have inured to their benefit.
He hoped that after the December general election the people of the Guan Constituency would have a representative who would champion their cause in Parliament. Nana Akoto Masakyi III said the eight kilometre road from Hohoe to Lolobi had become impassable.
Schools
“Our three senior high schools that we are proud of, namely Saint Mary’s SHS, Likpe SHS and Lolobi Secondary Technical School, are all lacking basic amenities and infrastructural facilities.
All of them need means of transport, since they either do not have one or the one available has been grounded,” Nana Masakyi said. He said their biggest challenge, however, was the lack of potable water which needed immediate attention.
The Chairman of the festival, Dr Winfred Ofosu, expressed his satisfaction that the people were using the event to raise funds for the completion of residential buildings for the medical staff.
As a medical practitioner himself, Dr Ofosu encouraged the people to complete the project, since the government was making sure that the Sustainable Development Goals for health for all by 2030 were achieved.
He also advised them to develop their festival to attract tourists whose contributions would go a long way to assist in their development process.