Lawra Municipal Assembly inaugurated

The Lawra Municipal Assembly has been inaugurated in a colourful ceremony held at the forecourts of the Assembly in the Upper West Region yesterday.

The event was well attended by several dignitaries including both former and current government officials as well as members of the Assembly, traditional and opinion leaders and residents of Lawra.

Speaking at the ceremony, Member of Parliament for the Lawra Constituency, Anthony Abayifaa Karbo, lauded the efforts of all former MPs and DCEs whose contributions to the development of constituency he described as key in pushing the lobby for the elevation of the Assembly from a District status to a Municipal status.

He recalled his own promise to constituents during the 2016 electoral campaign where he made a pact to become the ‘chief lobbyist’ for the Lawra District Assembly to be elevated into the status of a municipality by the close of 2017 if elected as MP.

Justifying his passion to get the Assembly elevated to the status of a Municipality, Mr. Karbo said, “The long quest to have our district, elevated to the status of a Municipality was not one driven by sheer vanity. It was not the case that we simply wanted to have attached to the name of our Town the word ‘Municipal’. The campaign for elevation was pursued because I, like many others here, recognized the significant benefits which came with such a status.”

He told the gathering that the elevation would bring along development and rapid improvement in the local economy.

“We can expect increased budgetary allocation which would go into improving productivity in areas such as health, education, job creation, agriculture, infrastructural development, poverty alleviation and many more. Our towns would see a facelift; with a new model of planning which would change and incorporate better demarcation for social infrastructure as well as improved access to social amenities,” he said.

In a speech read on his behalf by Mr. Martin Bomba-Ire, acting Municipal Chief Executive, the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, reemphasized his commitment to meeting the constitutional imperatives on local governance as a means to attaining the accountability of local government authorities.

He, however, cautioned that for the local government agenda to work, the citizenry would have to eschew acts divisiveness by minimizing conflicts around ‘the siting of district capitals, election of presiding members, [and the] appointment of government nominees’