Mr. Samuel Nartey George, the Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, has charged the Ningo-Prampram District Assembly (NIPDA) to strictly enforce land zoning in the district.
Mr George made the charge during the inauguration and swearing-in of a 33-member assembly comprising 22 elected members and 10 government appointees.
He stated that it was worrying that even though the areas has been zoned into residential, commercial and industrial, the assembly was not controlling development in the district.
“Mr District Engineer, nobody should be able to build in this district without a permit issued by you and approved by the DCE; so, no matter who the chiefs have sold the land to, if the person wants to build a factory, but in your plan it’s for residential purposed, don’t give the permit,” he stressed.
He urged the chiefs and family heads in the district to desist from selling the lands without recourse to the assembly, as doing so creates a lot of developmental control problems.
He said their actions of selling lands haphazardly might not be felt immediately, but the act turned out to harm the people, saying the recent floods that occurred in parts of Dawhenya resulted from the sale and filling of the buffer of a river, leading to the displacement of over 600 residents.
“We need to do the right thing if we want this country to work. It’s not only the president who has to do everything; it comes down to everybody; we all have to contribute our part for it to work,” he said.
Mr George further said: “President Akufo-Addo is not the one who comes down to give a permit or sell that buffer; it was someone sitting in this district who sold it.”
Mr Al-Latiff Tetteh Amanor, the Ningo-Prampram District Chief Executive (DCE) congratulated the assembly members and expressed his expectation that they would work together with the assembly to focus on the socio-economic development of the district.
Meanwhile, assembly members were unable to elect a presiding member, as neither of the two contenders could poll the needed 23 votes out of the 33 assembly members.
The contenders, Mr. Peter Akplehe Agyeman, Assemblyman for Mataheko and Mr. Nathan Nartey, Assemblyman for Prampram-Upper, respectively received 20 and 13 votes.
