Some youth in the Mpohor constituency in the Western Region have cautioned the current Member of Parliament of the area and his camp against running a smear campaign Alex Kofi Agyekum, his predecessor.

The youth in a statement issued on Thursday, April 1 2021 said that it has noticed attempts by the camp of the sitting MP to denigrate Kofi Agyekum.

They proffered that instead of running a campaign against him, the MP should rather focus on delivering on the promises he made during the electioneering campaign.

“Having succeeded in winning the parliamentary primaries of the NPP and subsequently, that of the Mpohor Parliamentary seat, pressure has started mounting on Mr. Sannie to let his presence felt in the constituency with projects just like what his predecessor, Hon. Agyekum did.

“With barely three months in office, the demand for developmental projects from Hon. Sannie to complement those initiated by the former MP is becoming unbearable, with constituents demanding that he redeems himself with the numerous promises he made as soon as he assumes office” parts of the lengthy statement read.

The youth, in the statement also highlighted some major projects the constituency witnessed under the reign of Alex Agyekum for which he ought to be credited for.

This is contrary to the numerous developmental projects that Hon. Agyekum had initiated. For instance, in Manso, Hon. Agyekum had built a 200 capacity Exam Centre which is ready for commissioning, a nurses quarters (8 units) at lentern level, 3 classroom KG complex at Anglican School, a water project at the cost of GH₵53,000 which he himself financed it for the people of Wassa Manso among others.

At Mpohor, Hon. Agyekum lobbied for the construction of a state of the art Science Lab for the Mpohor SHS. This has been completed and was inaugurated by himself and assisted by Hon. Eugenia Gifty Kusi, the former Deputy Western Region Minister.

"He also constructed and completed a 5 seater toilet facility for Mpohor Anglican School. The facility has been in use since 2015. Apart from that, he also erected the concrete pillars of the Krakue Memorial Centre and continued with the concreting of the floor".

Read the full statement below

All the machinations deployed by the then parliamentary hopeful for New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Sannie, to smear then incumbent Member of Parliament (MP), Hon. Alex Kofi Agyekum, to annex the Mpohor Parliamentary seat, has come back hunting him.

Having succeeded in winning the parliamentary primaries of the NPP and subsequently, that of the Mpohor Parliamentary seat, pressure has started mounting on Mr. Sannie to let his presence felt in the constituency with projects just like what his predecessor, Hon. Agyekum did.

With barely three months in office, the demand for developmental projects from Hon. Sannie to complement those initiated by the former MP is becoming unbearable, with constituents demanding that he redeems himself with the numerous promises he made as soon as he assumes office.

During the electioneering campaign of both NPP parliamentary primary and that of the 2020 parliamentary poll, Mr. Sannie told delegates of the party and the constituents in general, to reject Hon. Agyekum for failing to initiate developmental projects to address their needs.

He then promised the delegates the following; jobs for the delegates and their children no matter their level of education because not all work demands paper certificate, one tricycle (Aboboyaa) per polling station in the constituency, a rubber plantation/oil palm farm for each electoral area, ultramodern party office complex, foreign scholarship for delegates and individuals who gets admission into foreign institutions and many other lofty promises.

He painted the then MP as the stumbling block for the development of the constituency and the constituents.

This is contrary to the numerous developmental projects that Hon. Agyekum had initiated. For instance, in Manso, Hon. Agyekum had built a 200 capacity Exam Centre which is ready for commissioning, a nurses quarters (8 units) at lentern level, 3 classroom KG complex at Anglican School, a water project at the cost of GH₵53,000 which he himself financed it for the people of Wassa Manso among others.

At Mpohor, Hon. Agyekum lobbied for the construction of a state of the art Science Lab for the Mpohor SHS. This has been completed and was inaugurated by himself and assisted by Hon. Eugenia Gifty Kusi, the former Deputy Western Region Minister.

He also constructed and completed a 5 seater toilet facility for Mpohor Anglican School. The facility has been in use since 2015. Apart from that, he also erected the concrete pillars of the Krakue Memorial Centre and continued with the concreting of the floor.

Currently, a 6 Unit classroom block and offices which was abandoned for the past twelve years, a portion of it had been demolished, reconstructed and roofed. The work is almost 95% complete and the school authorities are so excited since the children will now have a place to study with the onset of the rainy season.

He has also lobbied for CODA (Coastal Development Authority) to construct a critical box bridge on a critical road that links the main town Mpohor to the Anglican School area and Ohiamanwu Electoral Area.

Angu Manso Zone, Dominase, Adanse Zone, Ayiem, Adum Banso and all the communities around these places have all had their fair share of developmental projects under the leadership of Hon. Agyekum.

In 2017, when the NPP came to power, Mr. John Sannie who had since been a member of the Council of Elders in the Ngleshie/Amanfrom/Bortianor constituency of the Greater Accra Region, migrated to Mpohor to pursue his political agenda.

He immediately set up an NGO, John Sannie Foundation and hid behind it to cause a lot of disaffection among the party faithful and embarked upon lots of undermining activities against the then sitting MP.

Several reprimands from the party Elders in the constituency could not deter him from going ahead with his plans, undermining the former MP to make him look bad in the eyes of the party’s delegates and the constituents in general. He set up a community radio station that was constantly singing his praise and bashing the former MP who was busily working in Parliament and lobbying for road network for his constituents.

A conspiracy group made up of some party elders, constituency officers and gullible individuals vowed and moved heaven and earth to unseat the then MP in the primaries much to the displeasure of the general constituents who see Hon. Agyekum as their hero both in terms of physical development projects and human resource development (ensuring more than 450 of the delegates were engaged in the Forestry Commission’s Tree Planting Exercise as well as apprenticeship training programme for the youth).

Also, from 2017 to date, more than 50 individual graduates, HND and Certificate holders have been recruited in the local government, Ministry of Health, COCOBOD, and GRA among other sectors of the economy, sources close to the former MP have hinted.

Admission to Nursing and Teacher Training Colleges have also been secured for 28 qualified individuals with the former MP still having plans to get more enrolled.

Having won the primaries, Mr. Sannie resolved not to have anything to do with Hon. Agyekum. For instance, he rejected a GH₵10,000.00 cash which was to be paid into his Campaign Fund by Hon. Agyekum. It took the intervention of the regional NPP Chairman and the Treasurer to convince him to accept that money for the campaign purposes.

“I can win the election without you. I therefore, don’t need any money from you, Hon. Agyekum for my campaign. That money can be used for the campaign of Nana Addo not me”, Mr. Sannie stated in the presence of the regional Chairman and the Treasurer at the former’s residence.

This incident occurred two weeks to the general election. This was the extent of the ‘gulf’ Mr. Sannie built around himself after the primaries not wanting to do anything with the former MP.

In spite of all these animosity, the former MP heeded the advice of the His Excellency, the President, the regional executives and the general constituents to ensure that the seat is retained.

Indeed, the good people of Mpohor were grateful to Nana Addo’s government and the numerous projects undertaking by the former MP in the constituency and this reflected in their voting on December 7, 2020.

Still having the constituency at heart, Hon. Agyekum has resolved to ensure that all developmental projects he initiated and those he lobbied for which have either been completed or at various stages of completion have been handed over to the new MP.

Some recalcitrant artisans and contractors have been hauled to go back and complete certain projects, payment of which have been made already.

Sources say, a comprehensive report on all these projects, have been compiled, ready to be handed over to the current MP.

In an attempt to ensure that these artisans don’t get payment for work no done, the former MP has periodically, be on those artisans to see to it that they are on site before handing them over to new MP to continue from whatever stage they have reached.

It is this action by Hon. Agyekum which has sparked an outcry by Hon. John Sannie and his cohorts.

Unknowing to Hon. Sannie and his cohorts, those projects they are claiming to be government direct projects in the constituency, were funded by the MP’s Common Fund and therefore, it was within the mandate of the former MP to ensure that those projects are handed over to him with factual report on the project stage.

Indications are that Hon. Sannie who earlier on said that the MP didn’t do any project in the constituency, now wants to ensure the completion of those projects and quickly inaugurate those ready to be inaugurated so as to paint a picture that he initiated those projects and not the former MP.

Barely three months after being sworn in as MP for Mpohor, Hon. Sannie has now come face-to-face with the enormous task ahead and the development bar Hon. Alex Agyekum has raised as a benchmark in the constituency.

Now, some of the constituents have started voicing out how they were deceived to vote for Hon. Sannie, with some going to the extent of telling him in the face that they have regretted their action.

“We have regretted losing our hard-working MP but we blame the delegates who allowed themselves to be influenced and falling as prey to the crafty lies of Hon. Sannie and his team”, remarked Moses Aduabaa, a 58 year-old farmer at Angu Electoral Area who has benefitted from the 7½ feeder road Hon. Agyekum constructed from Angu Junction to Domeabra using his meager Common Fund since 2014.

Similarly, the former MP has been commended by the Methodist Synod for his determination to lend a helping hand to have the Mpohor Methodist J.H.S block reach a stage where the pupils can use it till his successor takes-over.

These and many other realities which have made Hon. John Sannie afraid of his own shadow and thinking that Hon. Agyekum may want to come back to compete with him in 2024.

Conclusion:
‘He who comes to the equity table must come with a clean hand’.
Mr Sannie has now realized that the ball he threw against the former MP has bounced back is hit him hard.
Indications are that the former MP doesn’t even have any plans of coming back to contest the Mpohor seat. Mr Sannie’s victory was apparently as a result of the hard of his predecessor Hon Alex Agyekum. Lies are like mixing water with oil. The oil will come out on top of the water and expose itself. This is not a period of calling on the party hierarchy to call a former MP to order using internet space- a complete disregard of respecting the party’s constitution n laid down structures. Well this may not be a surprise since that’s has always been his modus operandi with his surrogates since his presence in the constituency .HonJohn Sannie must swallow his pride n be ready to meet with all his predecessors in the constituency. New broom may sweep better but the old broom knows all the corners.

Development of the constituency must override his personal ambition.


Concerned Youth & Elders of Mpohor District