'Focus on Unity'

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04-05-09

THE Central Regional Minister, Ms Ama Benyinwa-Doe, has called on the chiefs and people of the Effutu Traditional Area to make the perennial skirmishes that characterise the annual Aboakyer festival a thing of the past.
She said the people should focus more on the things that united them rather than those that divided them.
According to her, no tourist, whether foreign or local, would go to a “volatile environment where his or her personal safety can only be guaranteed by the massive presence of security personnel”.
Ms Benyinwa-Doe made the call last Saturday at a grand durbar to celebrate this year’s Aboakyer festival of the chiefs and people of Winneba in the Central Region.
The event was peaceful with adequate police presence to ensure law and order. The Tuafo Number One Asafo Company which went to hunt for deer, the traditional animal used for the festival, arrived at the durbar grounds with a live deer at about 9 a.m.
Amidst jubilation, members of the company in white attire, presented the deer which was carried shoulder high to the Effutu Oma Odefe, Neenyi Ghartey VII, who stepped on it three times to signify acceptance.
The rival Asafo company, Dentseifo Number Two, had about an hour earlier made a catch of a live deer. But members, clad in red attires and also carrying the animal shoulder high, did not send the animal to the durbar grounds for it to be stepped on by the Omanhen as tradition demanded, but went on a procession through the streets. Some of them told newsmen that they did not recognise Neenyi Ghartey as chief of the area.
Earlier on Friday, the two Asafo companies clashed resulting in some of them sustaining injuries. They were rushed to the Winneba Government Hospital where they were treated and discharged. Hospital authorities said most of the victims sustained injuries on their heads as a result of stones thrown between members of the two groups.
Ms Benyinwa-Doe said the festival was important because of its potential to serve as a watershed to place the tourism industry in its proper place as a major source of foreign exchange and employment avenue for the unemployed.
She underscored the need for parents to prepare their children well for the challenges ahead by taking advantage of the numerous educational institutions in the region. She expressed concern about the poor performance of children from the region in last year’s Basic Educational Certificate Examination (BECE), adding that the performance of the candidates “must be a source of worry” to all.
Ms Benyinwa-Doe told the people that the government would embark on a number of programmes to improve their lives.
“Let me assure you that the government is fully aware of the plight of our farmers and fishermen in this region and will spare no effort to live up to its policy of putting in place appropriate measures to bring about the needed change we all yearn for,” she said.
The Minister of Transportation and Member of Parliament for the Effutu Constituency, Mr Mike Hammah, said the government had begun an initiative through which the country would export maritime labour.
He said currently, there was a shortage of seamen round the world, especially in the developed world and that the government would take advantage of this to train people and ‘export’ them to foreign countries through bilateral arrangements.
A committee to develop the rules and relations through which such an initiative would be carried out had been set up to that effect as part of efforts to create job opportunities for the youth.
He told the people that a street lighting project was underway in the area, and advised the youth against drug abuse, teenage pregnancy and HIV/AIDS and other diseases.
Mr Hammah said the government was sourcing funds to build a harbour in the area, adding that there were plans to build another hospital to reduce the pressure on the main hospital as well as a market.
He deplored the recent spate of road accidents which he said were mainly due to human errors, and indicated that the government was putting in place the right structures to ensure sanity on the roads.
He appealed to the factions in the town to bury their differences since without that the area could not be developed.
Neenyi Ghartey, for his part, appealed for support from the government and other public-spirited organisations and individuals to complete the town’s library project.
He said the library was vital to the education of the youth and that the chiefs and people of the area would contribute their quota to ensure that the country was developed through the promotion of peace and other development activities.