Redemarcate districts to bring Konkombas together * says Konkomba chiefs

Page 17: Daily Graphic, February 19, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE Konkomba Chiefs Association has appealed to President J. E. A. Mills to re-demarcate the administrative districts in the area to bring the Konkombas together.
They said the Bunkpurugu/Yunyoo District should be particularly considered because of the protracted ethnic conflicts between Konkombas and Bimobas.
The Secretary to the association, Mr Kojo Naabu, who made the appeal in an interview with the Daily Graphic, said the Konkombas had been politically marginalised over the years.
That, he explained, was because the Konkombas had been scattered and shared among a number of constituencies and districts.
Mr Naabu said although the Konkombas were in the centre of a number of constituencies, the way the constituencies were created had destabilised them politically and often created neglect, dejection and disillusionment among the people.
He cited constituencies such as Nalerigu-Gambaga, Mion, Gushiegu, Chereponi, Karaga and Bunkpurugu/Yunyoo, which had seen Konkombas ethnically scattered and politically yanked and disintegrated although the Konkombas constituted the majority in those constituencies.
Mr Naabu said the absence of schools, motorable feeder roads, potable water and health facilities had made the Konkombas economically and socially deprived.
“It is common to see people, especially schoolchildren, get drown in rivers in their attempt to cross to attend schools in nearby towns and villages. Sick people die on their way to health facilities in other towns while our foodstuffs perish on the way to market centres because of the bad nature of roads,” he lamented.
Mr Naabu was hopeful, therefore, that President Mills would use the victory of the National Democratic Congress “to address these ever compounding and seemingly insurmountable problems”.