Award-winning investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni has asked the Oti Regional Minister Stephen Makubu to uproot trees planted during the presidency of Akufo-Addo since for some people his Presidency is not worth remembering.
His criticism comes after the Regional Minister got trees planted by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to mark June 4th celebrations uprooted with the explanation that atrocities were committed during the June 4th Uprising and so the trees will serve as reminders for people negatively impacted by the uprising.
“The Oti Regional Minister should as well uproot the trees being planted now. To some, the Akufo-Addo era isn’t worth remembering,” Manasseh Azure Awuni wrote.
The Minister has been criticized by many for uprooting the trees that the NDC had planted in the region. However, some have supported his action.
It would be recalled that the opposition NDC as part of activities commemorating this year’s June 4, a day in 1979 when the junta that later become the NDC launched its revolution to overthrow the Government at the time planted trees.
The trees were planted on the premises of the Nkwanta Community Day SHS in the Oti Region. But an obviously enraged Minister will have none of it. And therefore had the trees uprooted.
“4 June was a day people’s parents and lovely(sic) ones were killed. And many have lost their livelihood.
People are still crying over it. For this reason, it is not an occasion to plant trees that will keep hurting such families as the NDC did,” he justified his actions later in a speech.
“We cannot sit down as a country, as a municipality, as a region or a school and allow trees to be planted on a compound to signify this day where people lost their lives. We are indirectly saying that, if your grandfather was General FK Abu, Ignatius Kutu Acheampong and General Afrifa, then it means that you shouldn’t come to Nkwanta Community Senior High School because if you come there, you will see the trees there and you will remember June 4, and you will remember the death of your father and other loved ones who lost their lives,” he explained.
