The Member of Parliament for Takoradi, Dr. Kobby Otchere Darko Mensah has said that the a New Patriotic Party (NPP) government will move the headquarters of the Ghana National Petroleum Commission (GNPC), the Petroleum Commission and other oil companies in the country to the Western Region.
According to him, the move will satisfy a constitutional provision and also make the Western Region a growth pole.
[contextly_sidebar id=”77yqboCLknunifQWrf3O8nCFZQ4lLKnh”]Speaking to Citi News after a public lecture on developing the Western Region in Takoradi, Dr Kobby said that “If you take the last election, we were very clear in our vision to make the Western Region the hub for oil and gas development. What it means is that we are going to bring GNPC to Takoradi, Petroleum Commission, and also ask all the oil companies to relocate their headquarters to the region because there is a clause like that in the 1992 constitution.”
He added that “Ghana is developed like Kwashiorkor, because consistently the kind of development that most governments have pursued in the country is unfriendly to the western region. The region has only been seen as an exploitative point but when the NPP is given the nod, we will seek to turn this misfortune.”
He accused the Mahama led NDC of deliberately starving the western region of development. In his view “the NPP under former president Kuffour produced more cocoa which brought more money and development to the western region. But today the NDC has taken a decision to disinvest in the region. The mass cocoa spraying has been stopped and the free supply of fertilizer is in tartars even though they took over GH18m last year. This is a deliberate attempt by the NDC to starve the western region of its development.”
Dr. Kobby then called for an act of Parliament to streamline development in the Western Region.
He said, “they [NDC] did Sedecom and SADA by an act of Parliament, and so why is it that the region that produces the fat for the country they cannot create an act for it? This will ensure that the golden hen is still alive and can deliver to the rest of the country while making sure that the golden hen also eats, so it can grow and continue to do what you are happy that it is doing”.
He also called on the NDC to revisit the Western corridor development programme “to bring life back into the western region.”
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By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo/citifmonline.com/Ghana