Adansi chiefs receive ?700m

Fomena (Ashanti Region) -- The Adansi Traditional Council might have to reconsider a threat last August to go to court if the government further delayed payment of royalties due them.

Delays in the payment of royalties have over the years become a ritual and chiefs have always agitated and threatened to take one line of action or the other before their demands are somehow met.

Chronicle gathered from a highly-placed source that the said threats by the chiefs have been discarded. They have been paid a second instalment of ?700m (four per cent of their share) last September.

The chiefs had earlier in December last year been paid ?500m, according to the Finance Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo. The MP for Fomena, Akwasi Afrifa, commenting on the payment of the royalties reiterated the Finance Minister?s reminder last August that royalties are primarily meant for infrastructural development of their communities and not for their personal use or comfort of their families.

Afrifa who was part of the negotiating team explained that the delays had arisen because the government wanted to streamline the disbursement of royalties to ensure their proper utilisation for development.

With the release of a part of the royalties to the chiefs, the youth in the area expect to see some development which had been the condition by the chiefs for their demand. Some of the youth that the paper spoke to hoped that something could now be done about their proposed Fomena hospital which has since 1996 been abandoned.

The President of the Adansi Traditional Council, Nana Ofori Agyeman, was not in available for his comments.