Dubbed the,“Oti Referendum Campaign,” the campaign seeks to foster stronger bonds among the people in the affected area as well as to mobilise material, financial and human resources to conduct an outreach programme to reach out to the people to enable them to vote positively during the referendum.

Launching

Launching the programme at Kadjebi last Friday, the Krachiwura, Nana Besemuna III, who is the chairman of the joint consultative committee of the chiefs and people of the proposed Oti Region, said the agenda to create new regions had reached a critical stage and that was for the conduct of the referendum.

He said the processes set down by the constitution for the creation of new regions had all been meticulously followed, leaving the final requirement of the conduct of referendum in the affected areas by the Electoral Commission and the need to scale up local effort to ensure that an overwhelming “YES VOTES” were returned on December 27.

Sole object

He said that the sole object and purpose for the creation of Oti Region was to bring development to the people in the area, stressing that “the demand for creation of a new region for us is not motivated by any tribal or ethnic consideration so any suggestion or imputation of tribal or ethnic agenda to our demand for a new region is either born of plain ignorance or deliberate mischief, both of which cannot serve as excuse for the beating of war drums by our detractors.”

Nana Besemuna II recalled the history of the area saying that on December 8, 1952, the Buem-Krachi district, being part of the then British Togoland, was constituted with Jasikan as the administrative capital and stretched from Santrokofi, Likpe, Lolobi and Akpafu up north to Nkwanta and Krachi and that formed the land area proposed for the new region.

He said the proposed area was noted for contributing immensely to the economy of Ghana through the production of food crops, fish, cattle, cocoa, coffee and high quality timber, with a wide range of mineral deposits.

Deprivation

“All these notwithstanding , our area has suffered serious deprivation as a result of inequitable distribution of resources allocated to the entire Volta Region by the central government,” he said.

Nana Besemuna II, therefore, said it was due to the inequity that they petitioned the government for a separate region, adding that the present petition was the fifth one since independence that had been sent to previous successive governments.