Northern Regional Minister interacts with Assembly members

Bole, (N/R), August 23, GNA- The Presiding Member of the Bole District Assembly, Alhaji Zakaria Adam, said on Tuesday that finances of the Assembly has been overstretched and cannot longer cater for soldiers keeping peace in the area.

He said the soldiers have been in the district since the Ivorian crisis to monitor the insurgence of the rebels around the country's borders and since then, the assembly has been using its finances to support their stay.

Alhaji Adam was speaking at an emergency meeting of members of the assembly with the Northern Regional Minister, Mr Ernest Debrah, at Bole to run off the Minister's two-day tour of the southern parts of the district.

He called on the government and other benevolent organizations to assist the assembly to enable it to support the soldiers. The Presiding Member told the Minister that the district lacked good roads, potable water, electricity as well as good television and radio reception.

He said the situation does not only drive away government officials from accepting posting to the district but also create an information gap among the people in the communities.

Alhaji Adam told the Minister that members of the assembly are polarised on party lines and that has affected business in the assembly. Mr Debrah urged the assembly members to take interest in monitoring government projects that are under construction in their communities to ensure that they are properly executed.

"I am becoming disappointed with shoddy work done on projects awarded on contract in the district", the Minister said. Mr Debrah tour took him to Mandari, Sonyor, Kabilima, Dakurpe, Seripe and Mankuma Communities where he addressed separate durbars. At Dakurpe, the Administrative Officer of the Northern Goldfields Limited, Mr Daniel Safo Mahama-Amantana, took Mr Debrah round its gold reserve fields.

He told the Minister that the reserves have quantities of gold that could be mined for five years.

The Administrative Officer said the Company started gold exploration in 1994 and could have gone into mining in 1996 but because of the fall in gold price on the world market, investors are no longer interested in the industry.

He also attributed the delay in mining to strict mining laws by the government and urged the government to make the laws flexible to attract investors into the industry. 23 Aug.03