KWAEBIBIREM CONFIRMS DCE AMIDST POLICE PRESENCE (PAGE 16)

IN the midst of heavy police presence, the Kwaebibirem District Assembly in the Eastern Region, on Monday by a vote of 76-20, confirmed the appointment of Mr George Agyeman Duah, a legal practitioner, as the District Chief Executive for the area.
The policemen, led by the Regional Police Commander DCOP George Anko-Bil, were deployed around the precincts of the assembly and the main road leading to the premises where the ballot was cast to ward off a group of demonstrators who besieged the area to possibly disrupt the proceedings.
The policemen tactfully managed to control the situation, particularly during the counting of the votes when a number of the demonstrators broke the security cordon to bang on the doors and windows of the building. No arrests were made anyway.
Before the voting started, the Presiding Member, Mr George Aboagye, called for calm, after which the Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, spent about 40 minutes to address the House that was filled to capacity, including traditional leaders.
The Regional Minister told the gathering that although some of the people in the district might not like Mr Duah, his appointment was the prerogative of the President, and that they should vote for him to take up the position.
That, according to him, would enable Mr Duah to initiate programmes and projects that would accelerate the development of the district, which he said, had a number of natural resources such as timber, oil palm, citrus plantations and diamond.
He also called on the chiefs to co-operate and support Mr Dua, who, he said, had the capacity to advance the development of the district.
The Deputy Regional Minister, Baba Jamal Muhammed Ahmed, who was also present, expressed his joy about the successful conduct of the election, and appealed to the people to unite for the development of the district.
In his victory speech, Mr Dua asked the people to forget about the past, unite and support him to administer the district, adding that his administration would do its best to improve the lot of the people.
Later in the day, Mr Napoleon Amaoko Asiamah, a pharmacist, was also confirmed as the District Chief Executive for Birim North.
At New Abirem, the district capital, where the ballot was cast, Mr Amoako, who had for a long period been an Assembly member, polled 27 out of the 28 votes to carry the day.
Before the voting, both Mr Ofosu Ampofo and the Member of Parliament for the area, Madam Esther Obeng Dapaah, pleaded with the Assembly members to give Mr Asiamah the nod to administer the district, which had not had a substantive political head for the past one-a-and-a-half years.
Earlier at the weekend, a 59-year-old Human Resource consultant, Mr Atta Twum, was endorsed as the political head for Atiwa, also in the Eastern Region.
When the ballot was cast at Kwabeng, the district capital, all the 35 Assembly members voted for him.