It is now becoming clear why the opposition NPP did everything under the sun, aided by their newspapers, especially the Chronicle, to prevent Ambassador Victor Smith from being approved as Minister for the Eastern Region.

Just under four months into his tenure of office as the Eastern Regional Minister, the NPP is not only under siege from the NDC in the Eastern Region but has almost collapsed in their stronghold of Abuakwa North as their supporters desert the camp of their parliamentary candidate by the day to join Victor Smith’s camp.

The latest to desert J.B. Danquah-Adu’s camp are three of the party’s stalwarts on whose shoulders the party had hitherto made Abuakwa North a waterloo for the NDC.

Kenneth Ankomah, alias Black Calico, Kwesi Anane, alias Kobo and George Kwame Frimpong, alias Be Bold, who had all earlier sworn to ensure that Victor Smith does not win the seat over the weekend became ‘born again’ and defected to his camp to throw their weight behind him. This latest defection is one of the biggest blows yet to J.B. Danquah-Adu and may send him back to the hospital if care is not taken. In an interview the Daily Post, Kenneth Ankomah, alias Black Calico said he and his two colleagues decided to throw their weight behind Victor Smith because of a number of reasons. Chief among them is the Minister’s developmental programme, the fact that J.B. Danquah-Adu does not speak the truth and the way he has taken the people of Abuakwa North for a ride over the years.

On Victor Smith’s developmental programmes, Black Calico said the serious manner the Minister has set about improving the deplorable infrastructure of the constituency has left them all in awe even at a time he has not be voted as MP for the area. He cited the Kukurantumi -Asafo road which has been in a deplorable state the past fifty years.

“Even when Akufo-Addo was our MP, in spite of the support he enjoyed from us for eight years, he did nothing about the road. He does not have even a single project he can point to in the constituency. J.B. Danquah-Adu also became our MP and a Deputy Minister of state but he did nothing about the road. Victor Smith promised to tackle the road when he announced his intention to become our MP and before anyone could say a word, he got that long stretch of road tarred,” he said.

Black Calico also cited the putting up of an ICT centre at Kunkurantumi, the renovation of the Tafo Market which was becoming an eye-sore and the establishment of a Vocational school in the constituency by Victor Smith as among the numerous reasons why they have decided to vote for him.

All three NPP stalwarts in the constituency said because of their unalloyed loyalty to the NPP in the past, when it was held that even a goat, so far as it spots NPP’s colours, will beat an NDC candidate in elections, the NPP took the constituency for granted. This, they said, became the bane of development in Abuakwa North.

“This time around, our agenda is development and in so far as Victor Smith has shown that he has what it takes to develop Abuakwa-North, we will campaign for him with all we have and ensure that he wins the seat to become our MP,” Kwesi Anane, alias Anane Kobo told this paper.

Touching on other reasons why they left J.B. Danquah-Adu to his fate and why many more have already left with more to leave, Kwame Frimpong, alias Be Bold said the NPP parliamentary aspirant is not a truthful person. The result is the several promises he made to and has failed to fulfill.

“He promised to assist widows in the constituency but till date, he has failed to do so. This man jumps from radio station to radio station boasting about the millions he has donated at funerals. Are funeral donations development projects?” Frimpong asked rhetorically.

Kwame Frimpong, who is also the Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee of the New Tafo drivers union said he had personally vowed to ensure that Victor Smith does not win the elections but the level of development the constituency has witnessed through the NDC parliamentary candidate has left him with no choice than to join him and help him to win the seat so that the constituency will witness more development. He said apart from the infrastructural developments, Victor Smith has secured jobs for some of the youth in a number of organizations, something none of the previous MPs has ever done.

Black Calico, Anane Kobo and Kwame Frimpong said they have the capacity to lead many of their kindred to join Victor Smith’s camp and this they have already started doing.

When contacted, Ambassador Victor Smith said the development of Abuakwa-North was dear to his heart and will leave no stone unturned to ensure that the constituency rises from the doldrums.

This Saturday, he is set to officially launch his campaign to annex the seat from the NPP. Hundreds of NPP supporters have since his declaration of intention to become their MP, moved to join his camp, pledging support for him, abandoning the tottering campaign of J.B. Danquah Adu, who, overwhelmed by the mass exodus of his party faithfuls (to Victor Smith’s camp), had to be rushed to the Ridge Hospital in Accra with heart-related problems to avoid any calamity befalling him.