Oti Regional Minister, Kwesi Owusu Yeboa has expressed hopes of a faster development rate following the creation of the new region. 

He explained that "it was because of the socio-economic underdevelopment of the area that the people started agitating."

The cry for a separate region for that part of the Volta region had been ongoing until 2018 where the government made the division following a referendum.

The Minister was speaking to JoyNews' Peter Senoo after a three-day tour of the northern parts of the region including, Kadjebi, Nkwanta North, Nkwanta South among others

"I expect development to proceed at a much faster rate than in the past,” he said.

According to him, peace and unity can be maintained when development is implemented in a "fair and equitable manner".

On the issue of the recent killings in Pai-Katanga, Mr Yeboa revealed that three suspects are in police custody pending the completion of investigations.

This move, he said, is to prevent them from linking up with other perpetrators who are still on the run.

"There are a lot of people involved in planning that ugly thing," he said.

However, he assured that his outfit will firmly insist that the inhabitants and residents of Oti will be law-abiding.

"We are going to establish very effective psychology of fear and respect for the law. Once we do that and people are arrested and prosecuted and suffer the appropriate criminal sanctions, others will be deterred from resorting to violence when they have grievances," the Minister noted.