Zabzugu DCE slams assassination of Salinkugalana

Mr Issifu Alidu Laa-Bandow, Zabzugu District Chief Executive (DCE) on Monday described as “surprising and shocking the assassination of Salinkugalana Naa Sumani Tigu.

Naa Tigu, who was a chief at Salinkuya, a suburb of Zabzugu, has since been buried and so far the police have arrested four people in connection with his death.

Addressing the Second General Meeting of the Assembly at Zabzugu on Monday, he said the police are working very hard to ensure that the perpetrators of the dastardly act are brought to book.

“Any society that experiences conflict and insecurity cannot achieve any development. I believe that no single individual can ensure peace in our society.

“This requires a collective effort and I am committed to work with… stakeholders, the security agencies, traditional authorities, and civil society organisations to ensure that any situation that has the tendency to create insecurity is identified early and avoided,” he said.

Mr Laa-Bandow spoke against school drop out in the district, saying it is a common phenomenon to see girls of school going age raising children instead of being in school.

“In this day and age, we cannot allow teenage pregnancy to destroy the future of our girls.

“We all complain about moral decadence among the youth and yet tend to do nothing about it.”

He tasked the assembly to institute measures at the community level to discourage children from engaging in anti-social activities and should rather take their studies seriously.

Touching on moves to improve on education, he said contract for the construction of classroom blocks for Zabzugu Senior High School and Woribogu has been awarded and being financed from the 2011 allocation of the District Development Facility.

Mr Laa-Bandow said early next year, two other classroom blocks for Manguase and Rajia DA Primary school would be considered.

He said access to health care is still a major problem for people in the district, hence the decision to construct two Community Health Planning and Service Compounds at Ojoja and Gorkkuani in line with the directive of President John Dramani Mahama.

The DCE expressed disappointment that all roads in the district are in a very bad shape, leading to the rehabilitation of Zabzugu – Tikpralayili road and the construction of a few culverts and spot improvement at some portions of the facility.

The Kpukpaligu – Pagmado and the Nakpali – Maa roads have also been scheduled for reshaping and work has already started.

Mr Laa-Bandow said the assembly is collaborating with UNICEF and other stakeholders in the fight against open defecation while some local artisans have been trained in the construction of simple but effective household latrines.

He said feasibility studies have been concluded for the establishment of a rice project along the river Oti in 2015.

Interested farmers would be supported by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in the areas of land preparation, inputs and extension services.

Other programmes such as the block farming and fertiliser subsidy are also expected to be reinstituted.

Mr Laa-Bandow appealed to contestants in next year’s district assemblies’ election to conduct their campaign in a very civil manner and should be careful not to allow their partisan interests to show in the election.

He stressed: “Let us all comport ourselves to ensure that the elections are conducted in a free and fair manner devoid of any violence and acrimony.”

He said the first phase of the assembly’s street naming project, facilitated the building of good data base for effective revenue mobilisation and the second phase would tackle property addressing.