They have also expressed shock that the Commission of Enquiry was holding their last segment of the public hearings in Accra without any consideration of the petition for the creation of the Eastern Corridor Region.

A statement signed by Alhaji Moro Seidu, National President of the Bassare Youth Association and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra said the grave silence on their Petition was raising many worried questions as to whether the President was ignoring them or denying them of their constitutional right as provided in Article 5(2) of the 1992 Republican Constitution.

“Whatever the difficulty may be, that is preventing the President from forwarding the petition from the Eastern Corridor for due process, we pray on him and his good office to grant us our constitutional right to decide our own faith through a referendum as we did in the 1956 plebiscite because the reality is that a majority of our people are all for the new region. “

The statement said due to the importance they attached to the creation of the new region, all the major tribes of the area had come under the umbrella name, Eastern Corridor Citizens’ Coalition (ECCC) to demonstrate their resolve and oneness in the struggle for the Eastern Corridor Region and would not relent until the Eastern Corridor region was created.

The Bassare Youth Association among others stated that the under development of the area accounted for several social problems of the youth such as; mass school dropouts, rural-urban migration to southern sector and the neighbouring countries (Togo, Burkina Faso and Nigeria) to engage in menial economic activities such as head porters, child labour and other degrading activities.

It said out of the current population of 1.2 million from the proposed region with a total land area of 19,320.3km2 and population density of 50 persons per kilometre square compared with the Northern Region’s population density of 34 persons per kilometre square, the proposed Eastern Corridor Region did not have a single University or a polytechnic.

“Our people from Kpandai, Wulensi, Bimbilla, Tatale, Zabzugu, and Saboba go through extreme difficulties to access health services at the Regional Hospital in Tamale. Apart from that, they also travel to Tamale to be able to access services such as Ghana Education Service (GES), Ghana Health Service (GHS), Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), as they were all concentrated in Tamale.

The statement said area also lacked adequate banking services, professional educational institutions and had the worse roads in the Northern Region and believe that the creation of the new Region would provide the impetus for accelerated development.

“We as BAYA strongly believe that there are more compelling reasons to create the new region to improve the socio-economic development of the people and wish to humbly request of the President to make the creation of the Eastern Corridor Region his number one priority.