Esaase-Bontefufuo youth petition Regional Minister

Esaase-Bontefufuo (Ash), July 17, GNA- The youth of Esaase-Bontefufuo in the Amansie West District of Ashanti have petitioned the Ashanti Regional Minister to have the accounts of the town audited and investigate allegations made against the Queenmother, Nana Serwaa Akenten.

The petition signed by Mr Kwame Acheampong, the Assemblyman and 11 unit committee members, said the Queenmother and the acting chief of the town, Nana Kwame Acheampong were not contributing to the development of the town.

The petitioners said in 1999, the Queenmother and some elders allegedly refused to account for revenue from the sale of water from the town's stand pipe and this had resulted in the inability of the people to repair the pipe which had broken down.

They said this was after the town had agreed that logs they seized from some illegal chainsaw operators should be kept and used for development projects.

However, the logs disappeared and they later found that the Queenmother had allegedly sold them.

The petitioners also claimed that 100,000 cedis and two bottles of schnapps given to the town by Dawohoso Resolute, a mining company that decided to operate in the area as transportation fee during a meeting with the company and the District Chief Executive (DCE), could not be accounted for.

They also accused the Queenmother and the elders of failing to account for fines imposed on owners of stray animals in the town. However, when the Queenmother was contacted, she denied the allegations and said she objected to the accounts on the sale of water since some aspects of it were not clear to her.

Nana Serwaa said a separate committee was constituted to properly audit the accounts but expressed regret that the work of the committee was not completed because the assemblyman refused to surrender some documents in his possession in connection with the operations of the standpipe.

She alleged that the Assemblyman had incited the people against her and the acting chief of the town and had asked the youth not to attend any communal labour in the town.