NPP Petitions Kufuor Against MP

The Birim North constituency of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has petitioned President John Agyekum Kufuor over the conduct of Dr. William Boakye Akoto, the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area. Dr Akoto was a regular contributor to Ghanaweb's discussion forum, Say It Loud (SIL).

The executives said they are at a loss as to how to organise and canvass the electorate for votes in the coming 2004 elections, because since the MP assumed office, he has never conferred with the constituency executives of the party.

This is contained in a resolution passed at a meeting of the executives on November 1, 2002, following current developments in the constituency and the district as a whole. The resolution was copied to the Majority Leader in Parliament, the party national executive, the Eastern Regional Minister and others.

It was signed by 10 members, including Mr. Emmanuel Kofi Amoako, constituency chairman, George Arhin, first vice-chairman, B.A.Mensah, constituency secretary, Kwaku Yeboah, financial secretary, Kwadwo Gyamerah treasurer Yaw Nkoah Mensah, constituency organizer, Yaw kordie Atia, youth organizer, Kate Asumang, constituency women?s organiser, Enoch Agyei, ex- officio member and Mr. C.B. Anim alias Apollo, a patron.

The petitioners alleged that a computer Dr. Boakye Akoto presented to the party has long been taken away by him, whilst he has not bothered to look for party offices for the constituency as directed by the general secretary of the NPP, the executive charged.

They also claimed that since the Birim North Member of Parliament assumed office, he has never conferred with the constituency executives, of the party, adding that that behaviour to them, shows the MP?s total disregard for their (executive member?s) existence.

At the moment, according to the executives the party is without a constituency office at New Abirem, which is also the district capital for Birim North a problem, which they said Mr. B.O. Ahenkorah, the district chief executive (DCE) has been diligently tackling, and wondered why a recent Home-coming summit initiated by the DCE to encourage sons and daughters of the district who are living abroad to come home to invest was also kicked against by Dr. Akoto, the MP.

The MP is also accused of having allegedly gone on air to confirm positively that the DCE for the area, Mr. Victor Viscoff, Owusu Ahenkorah, had slapped a teacher.

According to the executives, the MP made the claim without witnessing the incident himself nor confirming from the DCE or members of the Birim North district assembly as to the veracity of that allegation.

According to the NPP executive members in the Birim North district, ?this unfortunate incident, has numerous implications.

They claimed that the MP?s behaviour smacks of utter contempt and total disregard for the DCE.

The executive also chronicled a few instances which suggest that the MP is behind a series of bad media reports about the conduct of the DCE.

They claimed that sometime ago, Dr. William Boakye Akoto publicly announced that he could not work with the DCE and the party chairman (Emmanuel Amoako) in the presence of the Eastern regional executive members of the party at a meeting held on August 6, 2001 at the DCE?s official residence at New Abirem. Subsequently, according to them the MP followed up by seeking 20 signatories to start a process of the assembly passing a vote of ?No confidence? in the DCE and had nine (9) out of the 60 assembly members to append their signatures. This attempt of influencing the assembly members to initiate that process, back fired, the resolution noted.

Not satisfied, according to the Birim North NPP executive members, the MP subsequently consulted a Lebanese timber merchant at Akim Oda by name Sabah, managing director of Birim Timbers, for logistics to organize a massive demonstration against the DCE for harassing illegal timber merchants and illegal chain-saw operators.

Yet again, the party executives claimed that when chiefs in the district organised a dialogue between the MP and the DCE, to try to let them smoke the peace pipe, the MP made it plain to the chiefs that since the President nominated the DCE, he had never liked him .

As the MP put it ?but since there?s no powerful chief in Birim North? he, the MP, could not do anything about it charged the party executives.

According to the resolution, since the MP made the foregoing comments, the party executives have noted that the support base of the NPP in the district is waning.

Meanwhile, Dr. William Boakye Akoto has reacted to the allegations by describing them as malicious and blatant lies calculated to damage him politically.

Speaking in a telephone interview with the Daily Guide, he stated categorically that it?s never true that he has not bothered to look for an office for his constituency and accused the constituency executive members of having allowed themselves to be ?bought? with contracts awarded them by the DCE, Mr. V.B.O. Ahenkorah.

He referred to an instance where an amount of ?500,000 he gave the party chairman, Mr. Emmanuel Amoako, toward the acquisition of a constituency office had been returned to him.

A letter dated August 7, 2002, quotes Mr. Amoako as saying ?I regret the landlady of the proposed office, has returned the money for the rent, saying that she is no longer renting it out?.

According to Dr. Akoto, those who did not sign the resolution passed by the Birim North NPP executives, against him (the MP) are the ones whom the DCE views as not being sympathetic to his cause.

They are Mr. R.S. Opoku. 2nd vice-chairman and Ofori Gyimah, Assistant secretary. ?Incidentally, they are the only members of the constituency executives who were denied the Poverty Alleviation Fund by the DCE?, he stressed.

The MP alleged that most of the executive members who signed the resolution in protest against his alleged misconduct, were advanced monies from the Poverty Alleviation Fund and have also been awarded contracts by the DCE.

He mentioned those executives as Mr. C.B. Anim (Apollo), who Dr. Akoto claimed has been given a contract to construct the Akoasi Market.

Arhin, according to him, has also been awarded a contract to construct a filling (fuel) station at Ofoase.

He described the action of the DCE and some party executive members as improper adding that their action is meant to offer the opponents, of the party, an opportunity to unseat him as the NPP candidate for Parliament for the 2004 elections.

According to Dr. Akoto, over the past one year since the DCE was appointed, he has never invited him to any executive meeting in the constituency.

He, therefore, described the resolution by the party executive members against him as a well-orchestrated plan aimed at making him unpopular for him to be dumped for another person in the 2004 elections.

He urged supporters of the NPP to dismiss the so-called resolution signed by what he termed ?only a few members of the party? with the contempt it deserves, as it does not represent the facts on the ground.