Legal practitioner, Tsatsu Tsikata, is calling for reparations for residents of Santrokofi, Akpafu, Likpe, and Lolobi (SALL), for their denial of a parliamentary representation in Ghana’s 8th Parliament.
Residents of the four communities, after the creation of the Oti Region under Constitutional Instrument 112, which left the SALL communities without a Member of Parliament following the 2020 general elections.
Mr. Tsikata, speaking at an honorific lecture and awards ceremony at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, he said the remedies taken by subsequent administrations, including the creation of the Guan Constituency ahead of the 2024 elections, do not sufficiently address the harm caused.
“It cannot be said that the subsequent creation of a Guan district and a Guan constituency are sufficient to remedy the injustice to the people of SALL,” he said.
According to him “the mere denomination of a district and a constituency does not provide the development resources that are the legitimate aspiration of the people.”
Mr. Tsikata argued that apart from the residents being denied a parliamentary representation, they were also deprived of development opportunities that come with having a Member of Parliament.
“For the period they lacked representation in parliament and their share of the resources that could have been available through a member of parliament, I dare say they are owed reparation,” he said emphatically.
The legal luminary further described as “historic injustice”, the Electoral Commission’s decision which prevented eligible constituents within the four communities from participating in the December 2024 parliamentary elections.
“Please remember that the EC itself has admitted that it would have been illegal to have asked the voters in those areas to vote in the Buem constituency in December 2020,” he said. “Yet, that is what the constitutional instrument which the EC has claimed in its defense to the election petition to be the applicable instrument.”
He further noted that the matter remains subject to judicial resolution, as those affected continue to seek redress over their exclusion from the electoral process.
