...As War Drums Beat Over Ledzokuku-Krowor Municipality
Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Rueben Nii Nortey Dua is in the dock at a Nungua court of public opinion, for allegedly pulling political strings to gift his Ledzokuku electoral area a head-start in power play over original settlers, Nungua’s Krowor, who, history credits with being the first settlers along the coast in what is now the Greater Accra region in the 13th century.
Leading lights and indigenes of Krowor led by former Hearts of Oak CEO Mr. Stephen Akwetey who is also the labia and heir apparent to the GBORGBU STOOL, and former Attorney General Mr. Ayikwei Otoo figure that, by this backdoor move Teshie and its Ledzokuku has eased itself into the palm of Nungua’s Krowor and covered it with its very right.
Even the more liberal Nungua Youth Association’s army of think-tanks figure Minister Nortey Dua has given the game away with a petition he wrote to the Minister of Local Government Joseph Yieleh Chireh, asking him to address seeming wrongs in electoral area demarcations which was never copied them.
Among the complaining gang of Krowor indigenes with arsenals to throw is the likeable Emmanuel Otu Quaye, who, once-upon-a-time almost nearly sent the entire gamut of the Ghana Football Association to prison over contempt says, he cannot fathom what must have pushed the Minsiter to write to get Ledzokuku electoral area numbers swell to 16 with Krowor’s staying put at 12 behind everyone else.
Interestingly the two joined areas that pass for a Municipality were each supposed to have 12 representatives yet, when the Local Government L.I. 1983 came into force on November 24, 2010 just three weeks after Nortey Dua wrote his infamous petition to Local Government Minister Yieleh Chireh, so much water appeared to have passed under the bridge.
Previously with the stakes at 12 electoral areas apiece Parliamentary Speaker Mrs. Justice Bamford Addo referred the Instrument to the Parlaimentary Committee on Subsidiary Legislation and it is thought this is precisely where lobbying to the point of massaging, must have taken place.
“How else yet another four areas were added to Ledzokuku remans a most shocking episode, after the tortoise brushed past the elephant to breast the economic tape several years down memory lane in one of a host of Ga folkloric tales,” a furious Mr. Akwetey told THE SUN in a fit of anger.
He recounted times past in history when a handful of settlers arrived beyond the blue including the deputy Minister’s ancestors and pleaded with the Nungua Stool, to be allowed an area to inhabit and populate.
“And so why must the original settler be made to feel sorry for what otherwise should have passed for a useful exercise in rallying to a brother’s need? Moreso we are clearly being marginalized in political terms because if these numbers stand, Nungua could be edged out in favour of Teshie in any office that requires the exercising of votes”, the complaining Akwetey thundered the atmosphere with a punchy sarcastic shot.
Former Attorney General Ayikwei Otoo joined the chorus when he said Nungua need not suffer such a dehumanizing fate particularly when a show of magnanimity centuries ago, should see its people stare at the barrel of the Teshie settlers’ gun.
But oncoming events have a way of casting their shadows even before time. Indeed to showcase how bitter the feud could degenerate into, a total of six plaintiffs have filed a writ at the Supreme Court to invoke the original jurisdiction against three defendants.
The plaintiffs are Stephen Nii BorteyOkane, Sheriff Bortei Borquaye, Anum Kattah, Eric Tawiah, while the defendants are the Ministry of Local Government, Electoral Commission and the Attorney General’s Department.
When THE SUN engaged a cross section of concerned citizens of Numgua in a chit-chat, a young man by name Papa Nii Alabi who claimed to be a member of the Nungua Youth Association wondered how deputy Minister Nortey Dua could side-step the multi-faceted problems besetting his Ministry, to remotely control events to the detriment of Krowor.
Nii Alabi was alarmed that several infrastructural projects such as hospitals, nursing schools, military training camps and barracks have all been sited at Teshie Ledzokuku and none for Nungua Krowor, when indeed both have a joint Municipal Assembly.
While the bickering still unfolds, THE SUN has dutifully intercepted the infamous petition authored by Nortey Dua dated November 3, 2010 written to the Minsiter of local Government in which he has copied half a dozen offices already lobbying them to correct supposedly wrongly-demarcated electoral areas, without copying anybody close to Krowor.
Nungua Krowor’s pain and anguish today has to do with the magnanimity showed Ledzokuku many centuries ago, when their ancestors benevolently offered several acreages of land to the settling Teshie for free, only to arrive at this sorry state today.
