The Chief and Elders of Pankese led by the Mponuahene of the Akyeam Kotoku Traditional Council, Nana Dr. Boakye Darkwa III, has threatened to take legal actions against the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) for allegedly breaching an agreement between the then traditional leaders of Akyeam Kotoku Mponuaman and COCOBOD for about 65 years.
According to Nana Dr. Boakye Darkwa, who spoke in an exclusive interview with ghananewsonline.com.gh at the palace in Pankese in the Birim North District in the Eastern Region, he said the land was released to Ghana Cocoa Board with an agreement between the stool of Pankese and the then Governor of the then Gold Coast in 1956. The 1956 agreement according to the Chief requires the government of Ghana through COCOBOD to construct infrastructure to benefit the Pankese Stool and the Mponuaman catchment area as well as provide development to the people, however, not even a single development project can be pointed at as haven been initiated by COCOBOD.
“Meanwhile, tons of Cocoa beans are being carried out from this area to Accra, for the past 65 years which Ghana Cocoa Board was given some portion of our land to grow Cocoa without paying anything, and even the few local people who benefited by being employed at the Cocoa Station are the first to be laid off in redundancies,” Nana Dr. Boakye Darkwa lamented.
He however advised his subjects to work hard to protect the successes chalked so far in bringing peace and unity to the people of Pankese and Mponua Division after many years of chieftaincy disputes. He said the disunity has caused development to delay in the area.
Nana Dr. Boakye Darkwa again lamented the recent rise in armed robbery cases in the area as robbers have been tormenting the lives of his people. He counted about five robbery cases which has come to his notice, including some small scale miners being robbed. He also said Pankese, being the paramountcy of Mponua of Akyem Kotoku, lack basic social amenities such as portable drinking water, public toilet, market, health facility and a police station.
He appealed to the Acting Inspector General of Police, George Akuffo Dampare to help establish a Police Station at Pankese to help deal with criminalities in the area.
By William Dei Gyau