Assembly members asked to eschew partisan politics

The District Chief Executive (DCE) of the Upper Manya Krobo District Assembly, Mr Felix Nartey Odjao has urged assembly members to eschew partisan politics and rather focus on issues in a more open, frank and pragmatic manner to develop the assemblies.

“We need consensus building as an assembly so that issues that may appear controversial on the floor of the House can be discussed fraternally,” he stated.

Speaking at the second ordinary meeting of the 10th session of the second assembly at Asesewa, on Tuesday the DCE noted that the development of the assembly to a large extent depended on the assembly members and, therefore, appealed to them to deliberate on issues that affected the assembly and to evolve guidelines to move the district forward.

Mr Odjao commended the assembly members for the overwhelming endorsement of the new Presiding Member (PM) at the last meeting and also stressed the need for the members to accord the PM the necessary support to execute the task the assembly had entrusted into his care.

Finance

The DCE announced that the assembly had collected GH¢384,094.34 out of an annual budget of GH¢476, 660.00, representing 81 per cent.

He hoped the assembly would improve and actually exceed the target by the end of the year.

He said the assembly’s goal to increase its internally generated fund (IGF) was still on-going and believed that it would be achieved.

Mr Odjao said the management of the assembly was in an advanced stage of constituting a task force to mop up the assembly’s revenue collection before the year ended.

He said the team would be deployed in development control, market tolls, container permits, business operations permits and property rates, among others.

He said the team would undergo a two-week training before it commenced its operations and by December 31 the task force would be disbanded, trained again and commissioned under the name town/city guards.

Security

With regard to security in the district, he said the district remained relatively calm and crime rate was under control.

He, however, said quite recently, there was an isolated case of armed robbers who attacked and robbed some traders of their money on the Asesewa—Akateng roads when the victims were on a business trip.

He said management of the assembly, the police and some stakeholders in the communities, including Dadematseme (community leaders) living along the main roads in the district had had series of meetings and took some security measures to curtail the situation.

Performance assessment

Mr Odjao announced that the assembly once again performed well during this year’s National Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) League which was conducted between October 2 and 3, 2018 and thanked the assembly workers for their hard work.

The Presiding Member of the Assembly, Mr Eric Tettey, said citizens of the district needed to contribute their quota towards the development of the area.

He alleged that there had been instances where revenue collectors, management and staff of the assembly who had been posted to the district to help in the development agenda had either been attacked or threatened in various forms.

That attitude, he said, must be condemned with the seriousness it deserved.

“We have to be law abiding citizens and not to put the law into our own hands. No one will come from anywhere to make Upper Manya District the safest place we want it to be. Let us cooperate with all assembly workers, irrespective of where they are coming from, and not harass any one because whatever they do is in our interest,’’ Mr Tettey stated.

The PM called on all stakeholders (religious leaders, traditional rulers) to support the district assembly to call the citizenry to order in that regard and to be law abiding.