General News of Friday, 27 April 2018

Source: mynewsgh.com

Grounds not good for NPP in Ashanti Region - Kennedy Agyapong

Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong

The Honourable Kennedy Agyapong, the man who has cultivated for himself a reputation of speaking his mind freely about issues within and outside his party has this time dropped a bombshell that “the grounds in Ashanti Region is not good” for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and there was the need for action to be taken to remedy the nosedive.

MyNewsGh.com has a series of tapes from interview segments Kennedy Agyapong granted on his Net-2 TV on Wednesday, Dialogue with Kennedy Agyapong- which we have attached to this story as videos for our readers.

Mr Agyapong spoke freely and honestly about the impressions he got from the grounds in the Ashanti region, the ruling party’s World Bank, when he attended a funeral over the weekend.

The controversial NPP Member of Parliament for Assin Central said the grounds in the Ashanti Region is no longer fertile for the ruling party based on his first-hand information he gathered when he visited the region and it was mainly because of actions of some appointees of the President who hail from the region, as a result of a propaganda that the region was not treated fairly by the Akufo-Addo government in its appoinments.

According to the say-it-as-it-is MP, things are very bad for the party in the region because majority of them believe the President has not treated them fairly in his appointments, which when interrogated is not true, for which reason Ashanti appointees must be up and doing for the people to know they exist and are working.

Mr Ken Agyapong also added that the MPs and appointees of Akufo-Addo in the region are not working on the ground to solve the problems in the region, citing an instance when he encountered a very terrible road in the middle of Buokrom township in Kumasi when The MASLOC Boss’ car got stuck. He said he has drawn the attention of the minister to that road, questioning why the MP for the area or Ashanti appointees will not be more responsive to the people who voted massively for them.

In one of the tapes, he said: “I went to the Ashanti Region on Friday. I went there and I deliberately went to do underground and listened to their feelings and truthfully, it is not good. (3ny3).” Ken Agyapong said on Net-2 on Wednesday.

“It is not good. But I am drawing the attention of my Ashanti brethren that Akufo-Addo has done exactly what is within his capacity. Isn’t the SSNIT Board Chairman from Ashanti Region? These are key areas that you are holding … …. … You can’t blame the President.” He pointed out.

Buokrom bad roads and appointees

“Go to Kumasi and see. There are some issues they are trying to use against the President Akufo-Addo in Ashanti Region, I dont agree with them complete. I am going to mention some names to draw their attention to something.. Boakye Agyarko, he is half half… he is from Jamasi… Frimpong Boateng says he is from Western Region and Ashanti. Kyei Mensah, Asiamah, Napo, Cecilia Dapaah, Kan Dapaah…” He listed.

“The Propaganda is going against us. Meanwhile the President has given them many appointments. I will be blunt! I disagree with the Ashanti Region on this.”

He continued to list more names:

“… Plus the Chief of Staff, the Deputy Chief of Staff. I’m not even talking about deputy ministers… GNPC, Tema Oil refinery… they must commend Akufo-Addo. I don’t want to be inciteful. They made some statements that made me very angry and I started defending the President. I said what?! ‘How can you say that? If you have a problem in this region blame your ministers…. how many ministers do you have…

“I went for a funeral at Buokrom with Stika (MASLOC CEO) and the BOST guy. Stika had to abandon his car because he couldn’t move it. I mean this happened in Kumasi! When I returned I went to tell the minister about the road: “eeish, our votes come from there, so watch it for us”. As I speak, they are doing tender for the (Buokrom) road. What’s the MP in the area doing? What’s the Minister doing? It is very very dangerous and it can cause us political apathy.” Ken Agyapong said.

“They tell the Ashanti Region people things to fall into their ears, that Akufo-Addo has done this… He has done that… Have you people thought about what Akufo Addo has given you? The number of ministers you have…. I even forgot to mention Akoto Agric. The two Akotos, they are all part of it.

“Then you sit and blame Akufo-Addo … nobody in Ashanti Region should blame Akufo-Addo if nothing is going on… They should deal with their ministers, they should not blame Akufo-Addo” Mr Agyapong said.

He added that he chases for jobs for his people by himself, praising the Akufo-Addo government for the number of jobs he’s gotten so far for his people, encouraging others to do same for their constituents to make the grassroots happy.

In other segments of the interview, Ken Agyapong said he was speaking about these developments openly and timely so that government ‘is not taken by surprise’ because they failed to act.

He said while some people within his party dislike his style, and many chastise him for saying publicly what he should say secretly, any time he had gone to say things in camera to them, they failed to act on it.