MPs under attack for failure to deliver

Residents of Alajo, a suburb of Accra and those of Boadua near Akwatia, in the Eastern Region, have expressed dissatisfaction at the apparent breach of faith by their respective Members of Parliament.

At Alajo, residents complained after the latest flood that their Assemblyman and ‘home boy’ Member of Parliament, Sheik I.C. Quaye who is also the regional Minister, are not doing enough to help them solve the perennial flooding of the area. The residents who were obviously disillusioned at the MP who they say has lived in Alajo all his life, said he should know better and do something about the issue.

It is now becoming increasingly clear that those residents in the area immediately around the big gutter are in danger of losing their houses and properties in the event of another major flood. Their fear is that the previously narrow gutter is now widening at a very fast rate, due to erosion. Since the late 1980s when the residents were prepared for the reshaping of the gutter through somewhere in 1997 when the gutter was dug for concrete works there has always been apprehension when the clouds gather.

In 2001, the same story was told and still, no change. The erosion has now eaten into the better part of the gutter leaving some houses dangling at the tip of the gutter. And at Boadua, in the Kwaebibirem District, the constituents of Hon. Kinston Akomeng Kissi are angry. They are angry at the failure of the Member of Parliament to fulfil his campaign promise of at least providing potable water for the community.

A Network Herald visit to the community revealed that in 1996, the former MP constructed two boreholes and bought a water-pumping machine for the area. However, their dream of getting water supply did not materialize, because there were no pipelines to extend water to the community.

A German company AKZ, based in Koforidua, estimated the cost of laying the pipes at ?1billion. According to the residents, while central government was to shoulder 90 per cent of the cost, the District Assembly was expected to contribute 5 per cent with the community adding up the remaining 5 per cent. Their (resident’s) 5 percent came up to ?50.

They claim that during the 2000 electioneering campaign, the current MP, Mr. Kissi, promised to shoulder their percentage if they voted him to power. To prove that he was prepared, the MP bought pipes valued at ?9 million, with the promise of settling the rest if he wins the election.

After winning the election however, Hon. Kissi paid ?10 million when he was reminded of the ?50 million. Then, he went for his pipes. Assemblyman Hamidu Adamu lamented “the MP bought 50 pipelines and placed them at his chairman’s house which gingered the people and made them vote for him because they were in dire need of water. Then he came for his pipes, to our amazement.”

Even though the chief of the area, Barima Owusu Konadu rather suggested that the MP promised giving pipes to the community, which he did, but when he found out that what the company needed was the money and not the pipes, he gave the area ?10 million in place of the pipes, when the Network Herald contacted the MP, Mr. Kissi on phone, he shot out 'I bought the pipes with my own money, and if I took them away, it is nobody's problem.'