Sissala East Assembly without DCE for 2 years
For the past two years, the Sissala East District Assembly in the Upper West Region has been without a district chief executive.
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This is because the highly polarised assembly failed to confirm the President’s nominee, Mr Moses Bavie, at the last assembly meeting.
This situation, which is also linked to ethnic issues between the Sissalas and Walas, is impeding the development of the area which is considered the most deprived and only district without a DCE in the region.
The Deputy Upper West Regional Minister, Mr Abu Kansangbata Kabiebata, who was at Tumu for the celebration of the fifth annual Paari Gbielle festival last weekend, lamented the situation and said it did not augur well for development.
Mr Kabiebata, therefore, called on the chiefs and people of the area to consider their development and come together to accept whoever the President nominates.
By so doing, he said, they would be benefiting from the government's policies and programmes which had been rolled out.
So far, no new nominee had been put up for the district. “I want to appeal to the Tumu Kupro and his elders, Member of Parliament for Sissala East, party executives and other opinion leaders to smoke the peace pipe, regardless of whatever the problem," he said.
He called on the Upper West Regional House of Chiefs to look into the myriad of chieftaincy disputes in the area which had resulted in some traditional areas not having rulers for the past 20 years.
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The deputy minister also spoke against some simmering land dispute which, if not resolved immediately, could lead to a breach of peace in the area.
Mr Kabiebata also noted that encroachment on government lands was on the increase and called on those perpetrators to put a halt to their activities.
The Paramount Chief of Tumu Traditional Area, Kuoro Richard Babini Kanton VI, commended the government for the establishment of the Tumu Midwifery, which had provided employment avenues for their youth and also reduced maternal mortality in the area, but was quick to add that their social amenities and infrastructure facilities such as potable water and roads connecting the urban and hinterlands were in deplorable state.
He, therefore, called on the government to come to their aid. The paramount chief noted that the shea butter and cotton industry were dying out and called on the government to take a closer look at those industries which could be very lucrative if given the needed attention.