Council of State approves process to create new regions
The Council of State has advised President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to appoint a Commission of Enquiry to kick-start the process for the creation of new regions.
This follows the unanimous conclusion of the Council that there was a substantial demand for the creation of new regions, after studying the petitions for their creation.
“Mr President, the Council of State has the honour to inform you that, having studied the petitions submitted and the detailed briefing by the Hon. Minister of Regional Re-organization and Development, it is of the unanimous opinion that there is a substantial demand for the creation of new regions,” Nana Otuo Siriboe II, Chairman of the Council of State, said at a meeting with the President at the Flagstaff House on Tuesday.
“The Council, therefore, advises that Your Excellency appoint a Commission of Enquiry to inquire into the need and to make recommendations on all the factors involved in the creation of the new regions,” he said.
Nana Otuo Siriboe said the Council, on June 29, 2017, received a communication from the President seeking the Council’s advice on the creation of new regions, as stipulated in the Constitution.
The communication, he said, contained copies of the petitions from the chiefs and people of the Western, Northern, Brong-Ahafo and Volta regions “from where the demands for the creation of new regions had been the most vociferous”.
He said the Council had meticulously gone through those petitions which numbered some 312 pages with accompanying maps and statistical data, adding that it was also briefed by Minister of Regional Re-organisation and Development, Mr Dan Kwaku Botwe, on his interactions with the chiefs and peoples of the four regions.
“The Hon. Minister did impress the Council with the elaborate home work he has done on this exercise including the extensive literature review on Ghana’s geo-political structure,” he added.
Nana Otuo Siriboe raised a request made by the Speaker of Parliament for the return of the former Assembly Press, now converted into the State Publishing Corporation, to Legislature.
He said Parliament no longer had a printing house to publish the gazette, bills and most importantly, the Hansard, denying the public access to the valuable tool for democratic governance.
President Akufo-Addo, on his part, expressed appreciation to the Council for the expeditious manner it had considered the petitions brought before it.
He said he had been giving consideration to the constitution of the Committee of Inquiry and should not take much time in constituting it in the coming days.
On the Assembly Press issue, he said it was not a difficult issue to deal with, assuring that the request would be dealt with soon.
Source: GNA