Tension at KMA

(The Statesman) --- Tension is brewing at the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) following a demonstration held in Kumasi by a section of residents against the 30 members who signed a resolution calling for a vote of no confidence in the Metropolitan Chief Executive, Maxwell Kofi Jumah. The demonstration has drawn the ire of the 30 members of the KMA who feel slighted by the action.

The Statesman has learnt that following interventions by the Minister of Local Government and Rural development, Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, the Ashanti Regional Minister, S.K. Boafo and other stakeholders, the 30 aggrieved members decided to rescind their decision. However, barley 48 hours after they dropped their threat, a previously unknown group staged a demonstration expressing total confidence in Kofi Jumah and threatened the 30 Assembly members who signed the petition.

The group presented a protest note about the action of the 30 KMA members to the Ashanti Regional Minister who told them that the matter had been resolved at the highest level and promised that their grievances would be addressed. The action of the demonstrators has angered the signatories of the petition, which called for a vote of no confidence in Kofi Jumah and have threatened to revisit the issue.

A source told The Statesman that although the demonstrators claimed that they acted independently, it is clear even to the un-initiated who organised the demonstration. “We could have pursued the matter to its logical conclusion but for respect for authority and the interest of the metropolis, we decided to bury the hatchet only for somebody to turn round to whip public sentiments against us. We feel cheated,” the source told this reporter.

He indicated that such brute show of force would not distract them from making sure that the right thing is done at the KMA. According to the source, demonstrations in Kumasi have always been marred with violence and said it was only by providence that the demonstration passed off peacefully.

He recalled a demonstration held in August 1996 in which the former Metropolitan Chief Executive, Nana Akwasi Agyeman was nearly lynched by the demonstrators and another one in 2000 where armed security personnel had to use tear gas to disperse violent demonstrators.