President-elect Nana Akufo-Addo has underscored his government’s commitment to fulfilling campaign promises made to the Western Region including the splitting of the region and the relocation of the headquarters of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).
On the creation of an eleventh region out of the Western Region which may be called the Western-North Region, Nana Akufo-Addo said he expected the constitutionally mandated referendum on the issue to happen in 2018.
“I committed myself and my government to the creation of a new region out of this vast region which, for the time being, we are calling the Western-North. That commitment is high on the list of priorities of our government.”
“By the time of the next district assembly elections in 2018, all the constitutional and legal procedures would have taken place and the referendum that the constitution calls for is going to take place together with that exercise,” he said.
The President-elect was speaking at the Western Regional house of Chiefs in Sekondi during his thank-you tour of the region to thank the chiefs and people for their support and prayers in the just ended polls that resulted in his comprehensive election victory.
Nana Akufo-Addo also assured that the pledge to relocate GNPC to the Western Region was not an empty promise.
“The commitments that we have made are commitments that are going to be fulfilled. They were not platform or campaign talk. They were full commitments that we made… We are going to relocate the headquarters of GNPC to this region.”
Among other things, Nana Akufo-Addo also made mention of the eastern and western railway lines saying, we are going to leverage the monies that you [the Western Region] bring to the national exchequer, especially from the oil, to compete and rehabilitate the eastern and western railway lines.”
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