Minister to investigate why EU Farm Roads excluded Sissala area. Mr Stephen Yakubu, the Upper West regional Minister has assured the people of the Sissala area that thorough investigations will be made to ascertain why the area was left out in the EU Farm Roads project.
He said the priority of government was to ensure that development was brought to the doorstep of every Ghanaian including the Sissala enclave and that no stone would be left unturned to develop the area.
“Lopsided development is not good for nation building and I will ask the necessary questions as to why the EU Farm Roads project did not include this area and if it is not late, we will see if something can be done about it.
I will also lobby the president and the vice president for the Sissala roads to be done with or without the EU Farm Roads project to justify the confidence reposed in the NPP”, he said.
Mr Yakubu was responding to concerns of the chiefs of the area when he paid a familiarisation visit to paramountcies in the Tumu traditional council in the Sissala East Municipality.
Kuoro Mahamud Savei Zakaria, the Vice President of the Tumu traditional council had told the minister that the Sissala people were pained because the area was left out of the 60-kilometre European Union farm access roads.
“Surprisingly we hear 70 per cent of the roads are done and not a single kilometre comes to this area, this, we feel discriminated against and neglected”, he said.
Kuoro Zakaria said though construction was ongoing on the Tumu-Navrongo-Bolgatanga highway, the pace was slow and urged the government to release funds to the contractors since they remained the two regions that had not been joined by tarred road.
Kuoro Zakaria commended the government for beefing up the security numbers and logistics and pleaded for the next phase of the planting for food and jobs to target poor farmers, especially fertiliser allocation, timely tractor services and seeds.
Mr Yakubu assured that he would make sure the right things were done by working closely to ensure the area had their share of the national cake.
He emphasised that with all the challenges enumerated, he would continue pushing and solving their problems to ensure the Tumu area became a better place to live.
“The road network, the schools, the hospitals, electricity, security bit, fertilizer, we will keep pushing till we all enjoy them”, he assured.
Source: GNA
