General News of Monday, 25 July 2005

Source: GNA

Kwaebibirem DCE denies Kade MPs allegations

Kade (E/R), July 25, GNA- The Kwaebibirem District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Yaw Yiadom Boakye, has denied ever issuing death threats against the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Kade, Mr Ofosu Asamoah.

He described the allegations as "a malicious lie" calculated to tarnish his hard earned reputation.

This was contained in a press release by Mr Yiadom-Boakye, in reaction to a petition by the MP addressed to the Speaker of Parliament, appealing to the speaker to use his good offices to provide him with security, because of death threat on his life, which he accused the DCE of masterminding.

In his petition, Mr Ofosu Asamoah also accused the DCE of being "the architect of a plot to intimidate and kill me" and appealed to Parliament to invoke all relevant laws under Article 122 of the Constitution against Mr Yiadom-Boakye for contempt of Parliament.

Mr Yiadom-Boakye challenged Mr Asamoah to say, when, where and how he issued the death threats against him. "What he and his cohorts failed to achieve at the Presidency and at the Assembly is what he is now soliciting Parliamentary assistance to achieve", the statement said.

Mr Yiadom-Boakye asked, " having secured the President's re-nomination and confirmation by the assembly members as the District Chief Executive, what purpose will a death threat to the Hon. Ofosu Asamoah and for that matter, his accomplices serve". The DCE explained in his three-page statement that before the NPP primaries, rumours were rife in Kade that, if the Party won the 2004 election, he would be replaced as DCE by an indigene from the Kade Constituency.

He said he ignored the rumours until his younger brother informed him that Mr Asamoah had asked his junior brother to inform him that, if he was re-elected as Kade MP he would block his re-nomination as DCE.

Mr Yiadom-Boakye explained that, in spite of the threat, he campaigned for Mr Asamoah and Mr K. A. Kissi, during the 2004 elections and gave them all the necessary assistance. He said the rumours that, Mr Asamoah wanted to block his re-nomination, became clearer when Mr Asamoah used various programmes that he took part in the FN radio stations to mount a systematic campaign against him.

Mr Yiadom-Boakye said Mr Asamoah and Mr Kissi went about boasting that they had succeeded in blocking his re-nomination "to the admiration of their supporters".

He said at the last NPP Eastern Regional Executive meeting held at That decision, Mr Kissi said, had been taken at a meeting the MPs held with the Presidency at GIMPA. Mr Yiadom-Boakye said both MPs derided him that he was only an administrator and not a politician.

He said the name of the choice of his successor by the two MPs from the district was well known by people in the district and added that both MPs were over confident that they had managed to oust him as DCE. Mr Yiadom-Boakye said his re-nomination by the President as the DCE for Kwaebibirem shocked the two MPs from his district, who had boasted to their friends and supporters that they had succeeded in blocking his re-nomination. He said after failing at the Presidency level, the two MPs decided to influence some of the assembly members to vote against him and formed a campaign team to that effect. Mr Yiadom-Boakye said he also formed a campaign team, which criss-crossed the district, contacting assembly members for their support.

On the purported incident at the Palmtes Lodge at Kade, owned by Mr Asamoah's elder brother, where the MP said he was resting when a "mob" stormed and assaulted everybody around, Mr Yiadom-Boakye said he was not there so could not comment on that.