Prestea youth appeal to Akufo-Addo for separate district

Residents of Prestea Himan Traditional Area, a gold mining community in the Prestea Huni-Valley District of the Western Region, have called on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to create a separate district for Prestea to enhance development.

According to them, Prestea Huni-Valley District with a population of 159,304 should be split into three convenient districts namely: Prestea District, Bogoso District and Aboso District to facilitate development.

At a press conference at Prestea yesterday, members of the Prestea Communicators for Development (PCD), Districts Rainbow Coalition and other Civil Society Organisations called on their Member of Parliament (MP), Mrs. Barbara Oteng-Gyasi, District Chief Executive, Mr. Mozart K. Owuh, and Divisional Chief of Prestea-Himan, Nana Nteboah Prah IV, to support their cause.

According to them, the district has not seen any major and meaningful projects for the past eight years.

This, according to them, can be attributed to the fact that the district was much larger than the resources, and as such was preventing any major “investment” in terms of development projects in the district.

The youth groups stressed that, “This is the beginning of a series of press conferences we will be organising. After Prestea, we will be going to Huni-Valley, then climax it at Bogoso.

…Prestea, Bogoso, Huni-Valley and Aboso have been providing gold for this country before independence. But we hope you saw the road when you were coming? You can visit our health facilities, schools among others and see if it represents an area where gold is extracted,” they stated.

According to them, their call has become necessary because roads from Prestea through Samreboi to Enchi were in bad state which needed urgent measures to fix them.

The only solution to this problem, they stressed, is for Prestea Huni-Valley District to be divided into three manageable districts in order to facilitate “real development.”

The youth groups said they were aware of the intended elevation of the district into municipality but opined that the creation of more districts will serve an even greater purpose for the people of Prestea Huni-Valley District.