DENKYIRA CHIEFS DEMO AGAINST MAHAMA

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Saturday, April 9, 2016

President John Mahama’s comment that the Volta Region is the electoral ‘World Bank’ of his governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) has incensed the chiefs and people of the Denkyira Traditional Area in the Central Region, who have since warned him not to step foot on their soil.

They said the president’s statement showed clearly that the NDC government was discriminating in the distribution of national resources and have vowed not to partake in the upcoming crucial general election.

Daasebre Oduro Akenten II, Abuakwahene and Denkyira Nifahene, said at a news conference on Thursday that “If the president believes the country belongs to all of us, he would not have gone to the Volta Region to say that that region is his World Bank and IMF.”

The chief also rubbished claim by President Mahama that roads and health centres had been constructed in the area.

Daasebre Akenten said that President Mahama is reported to have stated that the NDC government had completed a Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compound for the people of the Denkyira Traditional Area as part of efforts to bring health delivery to the doorsteps of the people. 

According to the chief, it is untrue because the project was abandoned long ago. He said the project has been overgrown by weeds with reptiles making the place their abode.

“The CHPS compound he claims to be constructing for us has been abandoned for about five years. He was there saying he had completed it and people have started patronising the facility but that cannot be true,” the chief insisted.

He also said, “We had to hand over our own roofing sheets to the contractor for the CHPS compound project but were never reimbursed for what we did.”

Daasebre said they were disappointed at the government’s inability to construct the main roads in the area and recalled that the president, in his recent State of the Nation Address, had announced that all roads in the towns had been tarred and therefore motorable, adding that that could also not be true.

According to him, the chiefs and the people were taken aback when President Mahama stated emphatically that the Dunkwa- Twifu-Praso road had been tarred.

He said Denkyira and its environs are some of the key bread baskets of the country, yet the roads had been in a bad state since independence.

The chief said if the Volta Region is more important to the president, then he should not come to Denkyira and its environs to campaign and accused the District Chief Executive (DCE) of the area of providing false information to him (president) over the state of development in the area.

“My elders and the people would like to tell the president that we shall not vote in the November general election because they are not telling us the truth,” he articulated.