President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo has said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) considers the Volta Region a “hallowed ground” symbolic to its struggle during the days of the Party’s formation.
He said history confirmed that the Region had endorsed the NPP, and served as a place of refuge for its political fugitives during its darkest days, and therefore the Party would never discriminate against its people.
President Akufo Addo made the proclamation at a durbar of chiefs of the Anlo State at Anloga during a working tour of the area.
He said the Party and its government had among its top hierarchy, indigenes of the Volta Region, who were held in high reverence.
President Akufo Addo said the NPP was also making stringent efforts to strengthen its support base in the Region, and condemned attempts to brand the Party as a sworn hater of the Ewe land.
“It was here in this region that people were most passionate about the political tradition. It was from here that the first people had to flee into political exile after independence, and it was in this Region that many chiefs had to flee into political exile, and some died there. Some of the consequences on the chieftaincy scene in the Region have still not been properly resolved. It was from this region that people were sent into internal exile,” he said.
“Many people forget that when J.B. Danquah, the first in the trinity of the Danquah-Dombo-Busia political tradition contested Kwame Nkrumah for the Presidency, on Ghana becoming a Republic in 1960, Danquah did not win in his home constituency in Akyem Abuakwa.
“But he won in two constituencies, one is right here in Anlo and the other is Ho West. Even if there was a little, brittle tribal bone within my makeup, which there is not, I would not choose the Volta Region as a target. History would not allow me,” he added.
The President suggested that the measure for discrimination be considered in the distribution of national resources, and noted the various projects NPP administration planted in the Region.
He appealed to the people to support in unity, his efforts at transforming the Nation in peace.
President Akufo Addo said the Government was willing to sanction a committee to investigate the recent troop reinforcements at the Nation’s borders; a move he maintained was necessary but had been contorted by social media, and called on chiefs in the Region to corporate.
The President, later during the sod cutting ceremony for the Keta Water Expansion Project, said he “recognized the indivisibility” of the Nation, and added that NPP would continue to woo the Volta Region.
The water project would provide potable water to over 400,000 people in districts along the coast of the Region and the Volta River basin.
