General News of Saturday, 1 May 2004

Source: MICHAEL ANTWI-AGYEI (GYE NYAME CONCORD)

DCE Hijacks Party

THE DCE FOR AKWAPIM South, Mr. Andrew Y. Adu-Nyarko, stands accused of hijacking the running of the Akwapim South Constituency of the New Patriotic Party much to the chagrin of the constituency executives.

Reliable information available to this paper indicates that this development has created tension between the DCE and the constituency executives of the party.

The DCE is also alleged to be terrorizing people who challenge him, with two macho men who move with him wielding pistols every where he goes in the constituency.

NPP activists in the district who spoke to this paper on condition of anonymity say in the just-ended national voters registration exercise for instance, the DCE set up and funded his own polling agents to undertake the two week exercise without the consent of party executives.

Sources say before the 16th of March when the exercise began, the party had trained its own agents ? two each for the 143 polling stations within the constituency. However Mr Adu-Nyarko dissolved the team, replacing it with his own people.

A document chanced upon by this paper which bears the name and signature of the DCE confirmed the story.

On a letterhead of the Akwapim South Constituency of the NPP, the paper indicated the appointment of people as the party?s agents in respect of the voters? registration exercise by the DCE.

The Constituency Chairman of NPP for Akwapim South, Mr. Samuel Tenkorang, corroborated the story when contacted and wondered if the party was part of the duties of the DCE.

The party Chairman said appointing party polling agents was purely a party affair and not that of the DCE.

The Constituency Organiser, Bismarck Opoku, questioned the source of the money the DCE used to fund the party agents in all the 143 polling stations.

He believed the DCE was doing all these to ?impose? his minion on the constituency as MP for the general elections.

A few of the party polling agents this reporter interviewed said Mr. Adu-Nyarko ordered them not to deal with any party official.

Again, they said he warned them to submit all their compilations to him and that if they obeyed him, they would be made party executives in the near future.

During a visit to the district capital, Nsawam, people Gye Nyame Concord interacted with said they always saw the DCE in a Nissan pick up with registration number GR 2853 F offloading polling agents every morning as well as dashing out monies to them.

Meanwhile the DCE has frustrated all efforts to get him to comment on the allegations against him.

First he refused to respond to a note this reporter left at his office in his absence.

When he was finally reached on his mobile phone, all he said was: ?Is it not party monies for polling agents, What is your problem??

He immediately hanged the phone. Not even a text message impressing upon him the importance to respond to the serious allegations levelled against him would move the DCE to comment.

Checks at the NPP national headquarters show that the matter has been reported to the national executive.