Pressure group Concerned Volta Youth has fiercely kicked against moves by the Akufo-Addo-led government to split the Volta Region into two because, in its view, dividing the region will not ensure the needed development of the region.

During the NPP’s campaign for the 2016 polls, the then opposition leader Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo promised to create new regions to foster development, creating a new Ministry of Regional Reorganisation and Development.

Mr Akufo-Addo, following his victory in the elections, has made known his intention of carving out the Oti Region from the Volta Region to bring about the needed development of the area.

But the group has dissented to the decision.

Speaking in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom, on Accra100.5FM on Monday January 16, Jean Claude Koku Amenyaglo, convener of the group, said: “If the decision to split the region is as a result of lack of access to the regional capital Ho by the districts, then the region needs good transportation systems like road and rail, just as the president has established the Ministry of Railway [Development] so that we will have easy access to our regional capital.”

“Again, there are no statutory funds that government gives to every region for development, and so if there is no such statutory fund for the region, I don’t see the reason why we should think of dividing a region as small as the Volta Region.

“Thirdly, the only statutory funds for development are at the assembly level, so we were thinking that instead of the president dividing the region, he should rather focus on the respective MMDAs and empower them financially just as he promised the $1million per constituency for development and the One-District-One-Factory [policy]. That is what we need, not the splitting of the region.”

He added: “Regional demarcations come with a lot of responsibilities: we have to consider land size, we have also to consider the population. The Volta Region’s population is not a population that requires that we split the region.”

Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com