The District Chief Executive (DCE) of Talensi in the Upper East Region, Thomas Duanab Wuni Pearson, has stated that it is within the democratic rights of Assemblymen and the people of the district to demonstrate against stakeholders over whom they are agitated.
He noted that the Assemblymen and some people in the area were agitated over employment related issues at the mining companies operating in the district, coupled with the poor state of their roads.
According to him, the constitution grants citizens the right to express their concerns through so many avenues, including demonstration, and the Assemblymen were simply exercising that right, even though he personally believes in dialogue.
He made this known when he was speaking on A1 radio’s Day Break Upper East show with Mark Smith regarding a planned demonstration that was scheduled to take place on July 18 by the sections of the district against Earl International Group Ghana Gold Limited.
He noted that though the concerns raised by the people were genuine, it was important that the youth exercise patience in their quest to secure jobs.
The DCE revealed that the demonstration failed to take place because the demonstrators could not meet the expected number they intended to demonstrate with, but any time they had the numbers, they could embark on the demonstration.
He observed that Earl International Group Ghana Gold Limited, for instance, had employed over 1,000 people, and “as Oliver Twist said, people will always ask for more”.
He said the Assembly in particular was committed to ensuring the lives of people in the District were improved, and it was important that the youth in particular exercised restraint.
He said the Assembly had plans to provide technical support to the teeming youth to enable them to properly engage in community small-scale mining, adding that plans were also far advanced to support interested persons who wanted to engage in irrigation farming during the dry season.
The DCE also revealed that his outfit has lobbied for a 40-bed female ward for the District hospital, which was on the pipeline.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Gilbert Azeem Tiroog|Ghana
