Central Regional Minister Justina Marigold Assan has expressed displeasure over the failure of the police administration in the Central Region to attend the region’s Coordinating Council meeting.
The Regional Minister described the absence of the two Regional Police Commands (Central Region and Central North Region) without permission as “disrespectful to the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC).”
“I don’t know if it is their style, but they don’t see why they should even give me periodic security briefings,” she said.
She indicated that the police had not been very cooperative with her office in recent times, a position she found “unacceptable.”
Occasionally, they will drop one in my WhatsApp. I frowned upon it. So, I think I need to officially push them up there to do the needful,” she stressed.
The Minister said the council would query the Regional Police Command officially to explain their absence at the meeting, where a lot of security issues were raised for redress.
“Official letters are coming; they are going to be strong-worded ones to them, and if they don’t respond, they will hear from us properly. And they are responding to the council and not me as a person,” she said.
“Because I feel that if you don’t respect me as a person, the seat that I occupy is so important and very big, and I will not take anything short of respect and dignity to that office. I represent His Excellency the President in the region, and I will not take any of such behaviours,” she said.
Mrs. Assan also descended on absentee Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) and heads of various departments, and did not spare those who arrived late.
“They would also write officially to the Council to justify their absence. Some of the things they were talking about border on those departments, and they needed to be here to respond to them. This platform is very big; you cannot disrespect it,” she noted.
Mrs. Assan further maintained that it was not the duty of the Regional Minister to solve issues within MMDAs but that of MMDCEs and other city players, and queried what these officials were doing in their areas.
She lamented to the Council about how she was overwhelmed each day with complaints over city-related problems from residents across the region.
“It is not the minister’s role to fix broken-down streetlights. If you have potholes, it is not the Regional Minister’s job,” she indicated.
She charged the MMDCEs to sit up in the performance of their duties to ensure such challenges were addressed as soon as practicable.
“Start engaging your community members at town hall meetings, let them know why you are there and what you can do to support them.
“When it is over and above you, you can let me have them, and I will also push them up for redress,” she said.
Turning her attention to some of the developments raised at the meeting, the minister deplored the spate of chieftaincy issues in the region, saying it did not augur well for the security of the region.
She therefore implored the Regional House of Chiefs to expedite action on resolving the cases before it for the peace of the region.
Mrs. Assan also expressed worry about the incidence of teenage pregnancy in the region, even though there was a reduction in the cases in 2022.
“The story is not too good. The heartbeat of tourism, the citadel of education, and all those beautiful accolades; I see them as a mirage because it doesn’t say anything with these numbers of teenage pregnancies,” she said
She tasked the various assemblies to embark on rigorous campaigns through education and sensitization programmes to help mitigate the situation.
