YOUTH ACTIVISTS in the Adansi Akrofuom Constituency in the Ashanti Region with support from their MP have joined the wagon of controversy that has stalled the nomination and approval of District Chief Executive (DCE) for the Adansi South District.

They are calling on President Mills to re-nominate Opoku Ampofo Manu, a Parliamentary candidate for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2008 general elections in the constituency who was rejected as the president’s nominee for the DCE position in two consecutive elections.

He needed 36 votes cast by the 53 member Assembly to be sworn in as DCE, but obtained 32 votes in the first round. In the second round, he polled 30 votes to the pleasure of his opponents from New Edubiase, the district capital.

His ill-fated confirmation has been blamed on NDC Chairman for New Edubiase Constituency, Mr. Addai, who is thought to have orchestrated the action.

According to NDC members in Akrofuom, the Chairman openly declared he would not allow the position to go to the people of Akrofuom as far as he remained Chairman and would therefore incite the Assembly Members, majority of whom hail from his area against any nominee from Akrofuom.

But this position, New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP for Akrofuom, Kwabena Appiah-Pinkrah said amounted to gross insubordination and disrespect to the authority of President Mills.

According to him, party politics is fashioned out to be respected by those in leadership, urging the party leadership to the call the Chairman to order.
The youth activists led by NDC youth including John Kpeglo, Robert Gyamesi, Assemblyman, Yakubu Cudjoe and Asare Kofi Fiifi, want the President to re-nominate Ampofo Manu for the sake of “political expediency.”

“We think it is befitting that the DCE should come from our distressed and orphaned constituency, Adansi Akrofuom. Any attempt therefore to nominate any person from New Edubiase would defeat the party’s aim of appointing losing parliamentary candidates in the 2008 elections,” they stated during a peaceful demonstration to press home their demands.

According to them, the DCE position is the only political appointment left thus denying the people of Akrofuom this position would mean it had been neglected because New Edubiase has a sitting MP, the District capital and the District Presiding Member.

“It is essential to state that should Akrofuom Constituency be ignored in this request, it would be extremely difficult for the party to do any serious campaign come 2012 general elections,” they declared.

Earlier this year a government appointee, Bernard Appiah-Kubi and Akrofuom Assemblyman, Yakubu Cudjoe said in a petition that the action taken and subsequent comments by their colleagues from New Edubiase not approving the President’s nominee had divided the NDC amidst acrimony and hatred.

From Ernest Kofi Adu, Adansi-Akrofuom
Source: Daily Guide