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‘Hanuawo’ of Dagbamate Apetorku Gbodzi shrine, in the Akatsi Municipality of the Volta Region, have appealed to the government to as a matter of urgency, prioritise their road networks in the area.
Ngorgbea Kofi Moses Davor, the Acting Chief of Dagbamate, in an address delivered during this year’s annual festival held at the Apetorku Shrine, Dagbamate, said that the road network within the area was in a bad state and needed urgent attention.
“Our road networks here for the past years have been very bad, we appeal to the government to urgently address this pressing challenge for us,” he said.
Ngorgbea Davor said that other challenges in the community, which needed immediate attention included the roofing of the Dagbamate Junior high school storey building block, which was awarded to a constructor for over 15 years but was abandoned, while the roofing was also recently destroyed by a heavy rain.
He said the community through the Apetorku Shrine single-handedly built a Vocational Training Centre to cater for the youth from the Municipality and urged the government to support and expand the school to accommodate more youth to alleviate unemployment rate in the area.
“The youth are the torchbearers of our tradition, the innovation of our present, and architects of our future. We believe empowering our youth with the wisdom of our tradition and tools of modernisation, we can unlock their potentials.”
He outlined some of the projects undertaken through modernisation drive by the community over the past two decades, which include the Apetorku shrine worship centre, school blocks with canteen and water closet toilet, teachers’ bungalows, Apetorku Gbodzi patients’ residence, community roads, and streets, electrification and maintenance of streetlights as well as the construction of lorry park.
Others were water reservoir and pipelines extensions, community health centre and staff bungalow, Chief’s palace, six guest houses, community centre and Vocational training centre which was commissioned during the festivity with a sod cutting for construction of hostels for vocational training centre apprentices.
Ngorgbea Davor appealed to the stakeholders to promote and support African traditional and cultural assets for tourism to generate unlimited benefits to enable most communities to be self-sustainable to relieve pressure on the government budgets.
He also urged President John Dramani Mahama to consider and embrace the African Traditional Religion and Culture, and mark one-day as a public holiday to foster more respect and harmony between all different faith groups in the country to get rid of any feeling of discrimination.
Mr Bernard Ahiafor, the First Deputy Speaker and Member of Parliament for Akatsi South, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, commended Dagbamate Apetorku Shrine worshipers for their hard work, dedication, and developmental agenda that promoted the progress of the area.
He promised that the government would bring back contractors to continue the abandoned works including community roads, Akatsi to Dagbamate, Avenorpeme, Xavi, Kpodzivi, Anyiheme, Agbagblakope, Tuime, among others for easy access.
He said 99 per cent of development projects in Dagbamate were self-initatives by the community and urged other religious bodies in various areas within the country to emulate same examples of development projects to help curb pressure on government as well as alleviate unemployment level in the communities.
Source: GNA
