Residents of Weija-Gbawe reject NPP leadership, push for the NDC to be given an opportunity to lead

Some residents of New Weija in the Weija-Gbawe constituency have lamented over the poor state of development in the constituency, describing the situation as deplorable and retrogressive.

The residents, who are mainly landlords, alleged that they have been voting massively for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential and parliamentary candidates for the past years but have not seen any physical infrastructural development in the area.

According to the residents, the performance of the NPP in the Weija-Gbawe constituency over the past twenty-four years has been appalling and unacceptable.

The residents asserted that since the NPP won the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2000, they have kept faith with the party and voted for them unrepentantly, but the party has neglected them and denied them their share of the national cake.

They added that since the days of President John Agyekum Kufuor and Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, the Member of Parliament MP from 2001 to 2012, the NPP party has done nothing for the good people of Weija-Gbawe.

The immediate-past MP, Rosemond Comfort Abrah, then took over the helm of affairs and represented the constituency in parliament for just a term of four years.

Her party members voted against her during the party’s parliamentary primaries, which elected the current Member of Parliament for Weija-Gbawe constituency, Tina Ayeley Mensah.

The same New Patriotic Party Members who voted to elect Tina Ayeley Mensah have said that she has performed abysmally, so the need to present a new face.

Meanwhile, some residents say that they cannot recount the number of socioeconomic benefits and infrastructure developments from the leadership of the New Patriotic Party and the respective Municipal Chief Executives, including Patrick Kumor, and the recently appointed MCE, Michael Danquah.

"In this constituency, the youth unemployment rate is very high which has resulted in a high level of teenage pregnancy in the Weija-Gbawe constituency.

"Some major concerns of the residents in the area are the lack of infrastructure for basic schools, lack of adequate drainage systems, poor sanitation, inadequate healthcare facilities, intermittent flooding of the area during rainy seasons, youth unemployment, and poor road networks," one of the residents said in an interview.

Members of the Landlords Association further added that most of the developmental projects in the constituency were undertaken by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government between 2009 and 2016.

Members of the Association have, therefore, called on members of the constituency to reject the New Patriotic Party parliamentary candidate who has been a witness to this underdevelopment.

“We are going to mobilize the youth, students, chiefs, queen mothers, traders, artisans, as well as professional bodies to galvanize votes for the National Democratic Congress Presidential and Parliamentary Candidate John Dramani Mahama and Felix Odartey Lamptey respectively,” they added.