Youth of Yapei/Kusawgu constituency in the newly created Savannah Region have rejected president Akufo-Addo’s appointment of Mrs Gabiana Gbanwaa as General Manager to head the Shea Processing Company in Buipe, the Central Gonja district capital.
The Buipe Shea Processing Company, a subsidiary of the Produce Buying Company (PBC) Limited, was established in 2012, to process, market shea butter and oil plants in the Savannah Belt of Ghana.
The company’s General Manager John Benam was recently appointed the deputy Northern regional minister designate, leaving the position vacant.
President Akufo-Addo then appointed Mrs Gbanwaa, a failed parliamentary candidate of NPP for Bawku Central in the 2016 Election, as a replacement to occupy the company’s top job.
But the changes have sparked growing protests and received hostile reception from indigenes in the central Gonja district, where PBC shea Buipe is located.
On Saturday, March 9, 2019, the youth held a news conference to react to the president’s appointment.
“We want to state in unequivocal terms that we will resist her from Yapei/Kusawgu constituency”, Ibrahim Sappors, spokesman of the youth, declared.
The youth said Mrs Gbanwaa is not a native of Buipe and will not be allowed to take up the position.
They are demanding that President Akufo-Addo appoints a native of the Central Gonja district and not even within the Savannah Region.
Ibrahim Sappor said in the statement that no member of the Central Gonja district has had the opportunity to occupy the General Manager seat of PBC Shea Buipe since its establishment in 2012.
“We have exhausted our patience by allowing others to enjoy while our own are left out. Two General Managers outside the district have managed the company since 2012. With the appointment of the current GM as the Deputy Northern Regional Minister Designate, we the concerned Youth will resist the alleged Madam Gabiana occupy the General Manager position”, the youth vowed in the statement.
They threatened further that any attempt to appoint another General Manager outside the district will compel them to hit the street, according to them, with all their might and strength including closing down the factory if necessary.
Dozens of the youth who attended the press conference at the Buipe ICT Centre voiced their support for their leaders and said they won’t accept “a no from government on this issue”.
According to them, residents of Yapei/Kusawgu have been neglected in terms of appointment.
There has been a growing wave of protest over government appointments in the new Savannah Region.
The youth of Salaga set the worrying pace when they violently protested against the naming of Damongo as the capital of the Gonjaland region.
The appointment of Samuel Tika as deputy Savannah regional minister has also sparked a brewing tensions in the Daboya area, which is threatening to renew a relaxed ethnic and chieftaincy dispute in the wasipe traditional area.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Eliasu Tanko
