The Minister of Interior, Ambrose Dery, has urged citizens in the newly created regions to show tolerance and maturity in their reactions towards the selection of the regional capitals.
He said the Salaga South violence, which arose after the selection of Damongo as capital for the Savannah Region on Tuesday, was unfortunate.
Mr. Derry, therefore, appealed to all residents of the affected regions to consider the creation of the regions as a means to bring development to those areas, saying: “We can only have one capital at a time.”
“Should you fail to get your choice, please we think that you should be law abiding”.
“And if you think strongly about it, go through the due process and let us see what it is. Certainly taking the law into your own hands is not going to be countenanced,” the Minister said.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday on the side-lines of a signing of a Japanese Grant Aid to resource the Ghana Police Service in Accra, Mr Dery said Ghanaians should rather applaud such developments even if some did not agree with the citing of a regional capital.
“There is going to be one capital. But the President has made it clear that development will be evenly distributed and that it is not going to be a situation that everything will go into a capital city,” he said.
The Minister gave the assurance that the Police was ready to ensure security in areas where the capitals are being named and that the Police had been able to prevent other eruptions, especially in Gambaga.
He, however, said the Salaga issue “was a little surprising because we thought that having announced the capital it should rather have been a time for celebration. Of course the IGP is also working hard with his men and we hope that we would not have such reoccurrence.”
Some irate youth went on a rampage to protest the development, burning down the New Patriotic Party (NPP) constituency office and some party billboards.
In a related development, Dan Botwe, the Minister for Regional Reorganisation and Development, has expressed shock at the reaction in Salaga towards the naming of the capital, given the extensive consultations with chiefs of the area before Damongo was chosen.
“We witnessed yesterday after such a beautiful programme an act of lawlessness in Salaga. We condemn this, we are told that about seven people have been arrested and they are looking for the others. It is our firm belief that the law would deal with such people,” Mr Botwe said.
The Japanese government has provided Ghana with a grant of 300 million Yen (2.73 million dollars) would assist Ghana to procure more vehicles and communication gadgets for the Ghana Police Service to boost their operation and ensure security for nationals and investors.
The US$2.73 million “Economic and Social Development Project” grant from the Government of Japan would, among others provide the Ghana Police Service with communication gadgets and vehicles that would complement the efforts of the Government of Ghana to transform and retool the Service.
