Exhibit Constitutionalism In Creating New Regions- Togbe Afede

Togbe Afede XIV, Agbogbomefia of Asogli and President of the National House of Chiefs has urged government to maintain constitutional lines on the creation of new regions to avoid a flood of demands for new boundaries.

He said increased demands for new regions was a situation the 1992 Constitution sought to prevent by dignifying provisions on boundary alterations.

He said the two main political parties, the NDC and NPP, have agreed on the need to divide some of the regions to make their administration and management easier.

The parties have also made several public declarations on campaign platforms of their intension to create additional regions when voted into office.

Togbe Afede who was addressing a durbar to climax the 2018 Asogli TeZa of the Asogli State in Ho, said “if one of the issues to be decided in such a referendum is the boundary of a new region, then it is difficult to see how voting could be limited to the people in an assumed boundary.”

He said his office received concerns from people living in both sides of the divide, and said, “the concentration of the Commission’s work on the areas from which petitions came betrayed an early assumption that voting would take place in those areas only. If this thinking holds, then we should prepare ourselves for a flood of requests for, and promises of new regions.”

Togbe Afede said to avoid the ‘bubbles’, boundary recommendations and the planned referendum should follow the Constitution’s clear guidelines on the process in the interest of peace and unity.

The move to create the new regions has been met with a lot of criticism by groups and individuals who claim it was being done for political expediency.

Meanwhile, some stakeholders in the northern part of the Volta Region say the need for the region to be split for an Oti Region cannot be over-emphasised.

Dan Botwe

The Minister for Regional Re-organisation and Development, Daniel Kweku Botwe, has given assurance that the processes that will be taken in the creation of the new regions will be guided strictly by the Constitution.

He urged citizens in the affected regions to ignore the alleged demarcation, naming or citing of regional capitals by anybody.