Assembly members sworn into office in Bongo District

Fifty four Assembly members elect and government appointees were on Tuesday sworn into office in the Bongo District to oversee the activities of the District Assembly for four years.

Out of the 54, 16 are appointed comprising eight men and eight women. At the just ended District level election only one woman was elected in the District, making the total number of women nine.

The ceremony also saw the inauguration of 190 unit committee members from the 38 electoral areas in the District.

Mr Sam Garba, the Administrator of the GETFund who conducted the swearing ceremony on behalf of the President, cautioned assembly members to put the interest of the development of the District above their political affiliation.

He impressed on all the assembly and unit committee members to diverse their sources of revenue mobilisation, saying one of the areas which could generate huge revenue for the Assembly is property rates.

Mr Garba who mentioned sanitation and environmental degradation as one of the challenges confronting the assemblies called for the enforcement of by-laws to tackle the problem.

“Government is in talks with the Commission of Justice to set up special courts to prosecute offenders whose activities affect sanitation and the environment,” he announced.

He pointed out that since the implementation of the District Assembly Concept in the country, it had chalked out a lot of successes, which had attracted applause from some West African countries and globally and gave the assurance that government would continue to support the assemblies to grow to serve the people at the local level.

The District Chief Executive, Mr Alexis Ayamdor, who expressed confidence in the assembly members and the unit Committee members, said most of them who were re-elected and re-appointed had vast experience that could help accelerate the development of the District and tasked them work together as a team.

The Paramount Chief of Bongo, Naba Baba Salifu Aleemyaarum, urged the newly elected assembly and unit committee members to work closely with the chiefs in their electoral areas.

However, the Assembly failed to elect a Presiding Member as the two persons who filed to contest got the same number of votes.