Oti Movement supports Jasikan’s bid for consideration as regional capital

Jasikan has received support for consideration as the capital of the new Oti Region, ahead of Krachi, Dambai and Nkwanta.

The support is coming from the Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) of the Oti Movement, the body comprised of the chiefs and people of the area that championed the creation of the new region.

The chiefs and people from Jasikan, Krachi, Dambai and Nkwanta South have all made proposals for their areas to be considered as a regional capital of the new region which is being separated from the Volta Region.

Government is yet to decide on where the regional capital would be located, therefore the JCC of the Oti Movement met in Accra on Wednesday January 16, 2019 as part of processes to reach a consensus and make an input into government’s decision on the capital.

After a presentation of bids from each of the four areas, the chiefs and representatives of the people from Kadjebi, Biakoye, Santrokofi, Akpafu, Likpe, Lolobi [SALL] and Jasikan threw their support behind Jasikan to serve as the capital.

This was on the back of Jasikan presenting a capital territory proposal, which indicated a spread of development projects instead of the conventional capital town adopted by the other contenders, Krachi, Dambai and Nkwanta South.

With the Capital Territory concept, Jasikan indicated that it would host the regional administration, whilst Biakoye, Akan, Buem and SALL [Santrokofi, Akpafu, Likpe, Lolobi] host other important facilities of the region.

While Dambai got the support of only Nkwanta North, no district supported either Kete Krachi or Nkwanta South for consideration as capital.

Majority of the people at the meeting discounted Dambai on grounds of it not being in the geographical center of the Oti Region.

They argued that the capital ought to be located at a nodal position that would be easily accessible from all parts of the region.

The JCC had approved of a ten (10) point criteria for use as the basis for analysing and selecting an appropriate location as regional capital.

It was therefore observed that Jasikan rated high in almost all the 10 key criteria for scoring.

Among the 10 factors used were the historical role played by the proposed area, accessibility and average travel time to and from other parts of the region in addition to the current social infrastructure.

In attendance at the meeting were chiefs and representatives from Buem, Nkonya, Worawora, Kadjebi, Tapa, Nkwanta North, Nkwanta South, Krachi East, Krachi West and Krachi Nchumuru and SALL.