Politics of Saturday, 12 July 2014

Source: Daily Heritage

Politicians to face beatings in 2016

Residents of Kojoku, a suburb of Kasoa in the Central region, have vowed to beat any politician, especially members of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), who will embark on any political campaign in the area due to numerous unfulfilled promises made during the 2012 elections.

They are warning all political parties not to use their predicament as a political tool to mock them every election year with unfounded assurances and promises that they cannot fulfill.

Speaking to the Daily Heritage, the Chief of Kojoku, who also doubles as a Sub-chief of Nyanyano, Nana Haruna Akpakoli Ocanssey, said politicians in the region have capitalized on their needs and keep on making wild promises during elections.

Enumerating some of the challenges facing the community, Nana Ocanssey said during the time of former President John Kufuor, the then New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for the area came to assure the community that he will construct the road network from CP junction to Kojoku if voted into power.

He said the NPP MP spent eight years, but blatantly refused to honor his promises of tarring the three-kilometer road from the junction to the Kojoku Township.

The chief lamented that after his era, then came the ruling NDC MP for Gomoa East, Ekow Panin who also visited the palace and made promises to construct the road network and build the only public school in the area- Kojoku Basic School.

“We were made to believe that a grader machine will be put on the road the following week to make the road accessible to all and up to date we don’t know when the grader will come,” he said.

He said currently, the community survives on the Kojoku dam for drinking water, which was constructed mainly by some Fulani herdsmen to cater for their cows. The situation is so pathetic that at any given time, the community struggles with cows in order to access water since most of the rural folks cannot afford sachet water every day.

Nana Ocanssey added that due to the bad nature of the road system, it becomes difficult to convey sick people or pregnant women who are due for delivery to nearby clinics and hospitals, resulting in serious complications and sometimes death.

“We will not allow any politician to use our road, water challenges, health and others to score any cheap political mark on any political platform,” he stated.

He further said the community, which is dominated by indigenes from Ada, is disappointed with the ruling party because most Ada people are considered to be NDC faithful, but quickly said the community is, nonetheless ready to receive any political party.

He said through his own resources, the Kindergarten block of Kojoku Basic School has been constructed to lentil level while he has converted a portion of his palace into clinic to take care of their health needs.

He, therefore, appealed to the ruling NDC government to listen to their cry.