Salaga NDC youth defends DCE

Salaga (NR), Feb. 21, GNA - The Salaga Constituency executives of National Democratic Congress (NDC) and a youth group called 93NDC Victory Club", have condemned actions by some individuals in Salaga that sought t= o destroy the image of the District Chief Executive of the area, Mr Alhassan Mumuni. At a press conference held in Salaga on Saturday, Mr Abdul-Karim Awudu= , Deputy Secretary of the NDC Victory Club flanked by constituency executives= , said a number of allegations have been levelled against the DCE, which needed urgent attention.

He said people were accusing the DCE for awarding contracts to persons outside the district while others alleged that the DCE was creating disunit= y within the party. Mr Awudu described the allegations as baseless. Mr Awudu said the DCE was not working in isolation, but with other people in the Assembly and they all worked within the framework of procurement law in award of contracts while some contracts were awarded directly from the national and regional levels. He said it was important for detractors of the party to be guided by facts before engaging in vindictive acts, which could even cause the nation and advised the rank and file of the NDC to stay focused and help the party to succeed in achieving its 93Better Ghana Agenda".

Mr Awudu reminded the people of Salaga that after the DCE lost the primary to the current Member of Parliament (MP), he quickly galvanized support and brought all the factions together for the victory of the party in 2008 in the constituency. He said it was therefore unfair for a group of people, who claimed the= y were sympathizers of the NDC to try to dent the image of both the DCE and the party by giving the 93enemy" the tool to fight with in 2012 and call= ed on them to desist from such acts and help the party to retain power. Mr Awudu said expectations were very high when the party won power in 2008 and since all their needs could not be met at the same time, some factions were created, which the DCE, the MP and party executives held various meetings to address.

He said what was happening suggested that some members were still satisfied in the party saying, 93Let us unite and work hard to retain the Government in 2012 to ensure that our efforts were not in vain since suffering in our party would be better than suffering in opposition." He appealed to all those, who were also accusing the DCE of being arrogant and running a one man administration to desist from that since there was no way a DCE could perform the roles of assembly members or that of the District Coordinating Director and the finance officer. "What is needed in the party at the moment is absolute unity, peace and development to justify the confidence Ghanaians reposed in NDC in 2008. Whe= n we continue to fight ourselves and may God forbid, we go back to opposition= , we would remain enemies of the party forever", he said. Mr Awaudu said the DCE two years' stay in office had seen infrastructure improvement and that for the first time in many years the district revenue exceeded over 100 per cent.

He mentioned the construction of nurses' quarters, classroom blocks, health centres, supply of furniture, and construction of bungalow for district director of education, completion of dining hall for Salaga Senior High school and a lot of projects under the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) as some of projects that had been executed. He appealed to all to support the party and the DCE to facilitate development in the area so as not to derail the development agenda of the government.