Mr Daniel Nii Kwartei Titus-Glover, the minister for the Greater Accra region, has called on the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCES) to be proactive and not limit the performance of their duties to the comfort of their offices.
According to him, there is more work to be done on the ground, yet the MMDCEs are not being active, giving the regional minister more work to do.
As a result, the minister has, therefore, promised to summon all the MMDCEs to remind them of their roles in keeping up with the development of the region.
He said this after paying a working visit to ECOMOC, a slum near the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, as well as cattle market on the Kanda Highway in the Greater Accra region yesterday.
The Minister said he was compelled by the circumstance to perform certain tasks that are preserved for the MMDCEs just to ensure that things are done as expected.
Mr. Titus-Glover was particularly concerned about how the city of Accra is gradually being taken over by stray animals – cattle, dogs, sheep and others, yet the MMDCEs are not working to address the problem.
“It is not the duty of the regional minister to be coming round in these things. It is the work of the MCEs, and from here I’m going to summon them to my office and give them my final warning,” he said.
He said cattle being left to move freely is not good for the image of the city of Accra and does not speak well of the people.
This, he recounted, calling the MCE for Ayawaso West Assembly to act on cattle grazing on the lawns in the Tetteh Quarshie Interchange just last week Saturday.
“When you sit in your office, you will be in your comfort zone. The president did not give you the office to sit in the office. Even the President himself, once in a while travels round the regions to get things for himself. So when he is reading the reports, he will say I have been here. I was in Saboba. I was in Tatale. I was in Zabzugu. He knows what he is talking about.
So that is the work that I do,” he advised.
Mr. Titus-Glover was happy that after cautioning the cattle sellers on the Kanda Highway, they have relocated most of their animals and encouraged others to keep their animals locked from public spaces.
Fencing the ECOMOC pylons
During the tour of ECOMOC, the minister promised to raise funds to fence the pylons to prevent the squatters from resettlement in the area.
He said the fence would not only protect power supply to Accra and its environs, but save lives and properties.
The minister told journalists after the inspection that the fire that gutted ECOMOC on June 5, 2024 destroyed some of the power lines, leaving parts of Accra in total darkness.
He added that the power lines also posed a threat to the squatters and had vowed to eject them completely from the area, in prevention of crime and other social vices, which are prevalent there.
After the fire incident, the Minister visited the scene on June 6, 2024 for a first-hand information and ordered demolition of the illegal structures.
However, during yesterday’s visit, the minister realised that the squatters have already started demarcating the land with charcoal powder to distribute it among themselves, despite being warned.
The minister said the Board chairman and management of GRIDCO have met with the minister and had requested that the pylons are protected.
In furtherance of the request, the Minister has assigned taskforce to conduct daily monitoring of the area to ward off any activities by the squatters to raise the structures.
He said it was the Regional Coordinating Council’s (RCC) decision to demolish the structures under the pylons and protect life and property.
So far, he is happy with the work done by the RCC taskforce and the joint security team from the military and police.
