It is alleged that the MCE for no specified reasons stormed the Dakpema Palace about a year ago and demanded for a Two Thousand Ghana Cedi Cheque that had been issued by the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly as part of its support or contribution towards the Educational Fund, under the pretext that the Assembly needed the Cheque back to attend to some other “important issues”.
Speaking in an interview with a cross-section of the media in Tamale during a ceremony to award scholarships to some 20 brilliant but needy students who gained admission into the various Senior High Schools, the Spokesperson for the Tamale Chief, Abass Salifu said this was the second time political heads in this ruling government had tried to sabotage the good efforts of the Chief.
It would be recalled that during the official launch of the Dakpema Educational Fund, the top political figures in the ruling National Democratic Congress administration in the Northern Region including the then Regional Minister, Stephen Sumani Nayina and all the three Members of Parliament in Tamale treated the invitation of the Chief with contempt.
Since then, none of the three MPs; Lawyer Inusah Fuseini of Tamale Central, Lawyer Haruna Iddrisu of Tamale South and Alhaji Sumani Zakaria of Tamale North Constituencies have not yet made any donation or apologize for their actions.
The Spokesperson was therefore with the high conviction that people in authority like the Tamale Mayor who claims to be the representative of the people, were not interested in partnering with the Traditional Authorities to develop the metropolis, which is growing faster but lags behind in terms of education.
He did not understand why visitors from outside Tamale, individuals and organizations like Action Aid Ghana and Vodafone Ghana.
Mr. Abass Salifu also a former President of the Ghana National Union of Polytechnic Students (GNUPS) chastised that the behavior of Alhaji Friday explained his low interest in the development and promotion of quality education, even though he was aware that education was a pre-requisite for the development of the people.
According to him, he suspected that the Mayor did not take the money back to the Assembly to address any pressing issue as he claimed, but he took it for his personal use.
Mr. Abass Salifu entreated the MCE to try and support the Dakpema Educational Fund which is the one of its kind in the whole of the region to benefit more vulnerable students.
On the other hand, apart from support school children especially the girl child, the Dakpema Educational Fund has also supported and renovated some deprived schools in Tamale with recent one being the Dakpema Primary School.
In reaction however, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly, Musah Issah denied the allegation that the MCE went back for the 2,000 Ghana cedi cheque.
According to him, the cheque was paid by the Assembly towards the Dakpema Peace Fund but not the Educational Fund as being alleged by the Spokesperson of the Tamale Chief, Mr. Abass Salifu.
The PRO explained that neither the Assembly nor the MCE went back to the Palace for the cheque but it was the Committee managing the Dakpema Peace Fund that brought back the cheque after they had failed to cash it from the bank in somewhere early 2009.
“The Cheque was supposed to be paid into an account of the Fund but the Dakpema Peace Fund by then did not have any Bank account. So it was after they had realized that they could not withdraw the money then they sent people to bring back the cheque and as we speak now the cheque is still lying down in our offices”.
Mr. Musah Issah therefore described it as malicious for anybody to blame the MCE for what had happened.
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