At a crunch presentation of bids and endorsement meeting of the Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) of the Oti Movement, the body that championed the creation of the Oti region, in Accra on Wednesday, January 16, 2019, Jasikan was overwhelmingly supported to host the regional capital of Oti Region.
Chiefs and people and their representatives from Kadjebi, Biakoye, Santrokofi, Akpafu, Likpe, Lolobi (SALL) and Jasikan threw their support behind Jasikan to serve as the Capital for Oti Region.
This came on the back of Jasikan presenting a Capital Territory proposal, which readily spreads development instead of the conventional capital town adopted by the other contenders Krachi, Dambai and Nkwanta South. With the Capital Territory concept, Jasikan would host the Regional Administration, whiles Biakoye, Akan, Buem and SALL host other important facilities of the region.
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While Dambai got the support of only Nkwanta North, no district supported either Kete Krachi or Nkwanta South, leaving them in the cold.
Majority of the people at the meeting discounted Dambai as the central location of the region, because it is not the actual geographical center of the Oti Region. The regional ought to be located at a nodal position that is easily accessible from all part of the region and this the people thought fell on Jasikan.
The JCC had approved of a ten (10) point Criteria for use as the basis for analysing and selecting an appropriate location as the regional capital.
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This notwithstanding, it was observed that Jasikan rated high in almost all the 10 key criteria for scoring. Among the ten factors used were the Historical role played by the proposed center for the entire proposed region, Accessibility and average travel time to and from other parts of the region, Centrality/ Modality of the proposed centres, United and generally accepted traditional authority, Assurance of Peace and Security, Availability and level of current social infrastructure and access to a well-drained land which is also free of litigation among others.
In attendance were Chiefs and representatives from Buem, Nkonya, Worawora, Kadjebi, Tapa, Nkwanta North, Nkwanta South, Karachi East, Karachi West, and Krachi Nchumuru and SALL.
Source: Joint Consultative Committee, Oti Movement