The constituency executives of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Sissala West of the Upper West Region have called on President Akufo-Addo as a matter of urgency to relieve the District Chief Executive (DCE) of the area, Hon. Mohammed Zackaria Bakor of his position for alleged misappropriation of funds.

Addressing a news conference in the area, the Executive Committee of the party accused the DCE of awarding contracts to himself and his immediate family members.

According to them, the relationship between the constituency executives and the DCE is untenable.

"The DCE in our district is the biggest beneficiary of our victory in the 2016 general election. In spite of that the DCE threw caution to dogs and without any engagement with the Constituency Party Executives, unilaterally awarded to himself and his immediate family fourteen (14) schools out of a total of fifty-three (53) schools, under the School Feeding Programme in the District", they alleged.

They also alleged that the DCE has awarded School Feeding Programme contracts to his two wives to the detriment of some hardworking party members.

"To the detriment of some hard-working members of our great party, the Hon. DCE’s two wives were each awarded with two populated schools as their share of their husband’s allocated contracts. This skewed distribution of the School Feeding contracts has left in its wake a growing syndrome of despondency among the rank and file of our party. This has negative consequences for both the growth of our party (NPP) and its fortunes on future elections in the constituency".

The disgruntled constituency executives have therefore alleged that the DCE has used the Assembly funds to complete two houses in different places and also bought a Saloon Car for one of his wives.

"The affluent lifestyle of the DCE has negatively affected the party at the grassroots level. Within a matter of one week, the DCE was able to organize two expensive weddings in Hohoe in the Volta Region and Bullu in the Upper West Region from 14th - 22nd of April, 2018. Also, since assuming office, he has started and completed two houses at Tumu in the Sissala East Municipality and at Brekum in Brong Ahafo Region. He has bought a Saloon Car for the wife and she brags saying that “jealous people will suffer and whether they like it or not, NPP is for them”. The implication of his ostentatious lifestyle puts the party in a challenging and defensive position from opposition attacks".

They also said the DCE has been using security to intimidate them for not exposing his bad behaviour and therefore described it as unfortunate.

"Instead of engaging in his primary core mandates as the head of DiSEC to protect and safeguard inhabitants of the Sissala West District, the DCE has the penchant of creating insecurity especially targeting the very people whose toil and contributed significantly to making him a DCE. We believe that if anything happens to any of our polling station officers, the DCE should be the first to be investigated".

However, the executive members have accused the MP of the area, Hon. Patrick Adama of backing the DCE to destroy the fortunes of the party.

"Our friends in the media, in the DCE's usual uncompromising and wanton disregard for our party development, the DCE has also vowed not to visit some communities/polling stations for reasons best known to him alone. This posture of the DCE is a rehearsed intention to alienate party members and divide the support base to enable him [DCE] centralizes the distribution of resources. No wonder he and the MP awarded District Development Funds projects to themselves. The DCE takes unilateral decisions and acts clandestinely on issues bordering on jobs, recruitment and other opportunities that have eluded party faithfuls across the Constituency. The DCE's behaviour is back by the MP, who said over his dead body will anybody relieve him (DCE) of his position once he is doing his (MP) bidding".

They said "The MP is not visible and accessible in the Constituency. Hon. Patrick Adama stays in a hotel in another Constituency denying his Constituents access to discuss pertinent socio-development issues".

The aggrieved constituency executives have therefore called on President Akufo-Addo and the leadership of the party to sack the DCE immediately and they before believe that the DCE would be sack.

"The executive committee is also calling on the appointing authority and national executive committee as a matter of urgency to relieve the Hon. DCE (Mr. Mohammed Zackaria Bakor) of his position to pave way for peace and development of the party in order to consolidate the party's gains in 2016 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in the constituency since his continuous stay in office is a disincentive to the party’s growth", they urged.

Below is the full statement

PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE SORRY STATE OF THE NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY (NPP) IN THE SISSALA WEST CONSTITUENCY BY THE PARTY EXECUTIVES

Our Media friends, Opinion Leaders, Ladies and Gentlemen, we welcome you all to this emergency press conference.

We do appreciate your presence even on a short invitation notice. It is our hope that the media would do us a lot of favour this morning by ensuring that the issues we are about to raise are put on the public domain for the appropriate authorities and those who matter in this regard, to address the issues amicably.

His Excellency (Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo), our Great President of the Republic of Ghana, is engaged in prudent economic management policies, leading to the implementation of good policies and programmes such as Free Senior High School, Planting for Food and Jobs, NaBCo, one million per constituency, reducing debt to GDP ratio, reducing interest rate to create business friendly climate, growing the economy from 3.6% in 2016 to 8.5% in 2017, reduced inflation from 16% to under 10% etc. These and many more policies and programmes are geared towards improving the standard of living and the general wellbeing of the citizens and the people of Sissala West Constituency are not an exception.

Despite all these prudent policies by HE, the president to reduce cost of living and improve upon standard of living, the conduct of our District Chief Executive (DCE) Hon. Mohammed Zackaria Bakor and the Hon. Member of Parliament (Hon. Patrick Alhassan Adama) is counterproductive to these efforts. Their actions are uncomplimentary and an affront to the President's vision of growth and development of the country and party in the constituency and across the country.

The DCE in our District is the biggest beneficiary of our victory in the 2016 general election. In spite of that the DCE threw caution to dogs and without any engagement with the Constituency Party Executives, unilaterally awarded to himself and his immediate family fourteen (14) schools out of a total of fifty-three (53) schools, under the School Feeding Programme in the District. To the detriment of some hard working members of our great party, the Hon. DCE’s two wives were each awarded with two populated schools as their share of their husband’s allocated contracts. This skewed distribution of the School Feeding contracts has left in its wake a growing syndrome of despondency among the rank and file of our party. This has negative consequences for both the growth of our party (NPP) and its fortunes on future elections in the constituency.

The DCE (Hon. Bakor) has become a security threat creating fear and panic especially to party Executives in the Constituency, he has vowed not work with. He has gained notoriety for consistently threatening law abiding party Executives who work within our District. As part of his modus operandi, he consistently threatened to transfer executives who double as Employees of government institutions. One of such threats manifested when he personally visited one of our polling station secretaries’ father at Kusali and threatened the father that “if anything happens to your son, do not blame me (DCE)."

We found the DCE's conduct very strange and unfortunate of a DCE who is supposed to be the head of the District Security Council and as a results, we (Constituency Executive Committee) complained to the District Police Command over his threats. Instead of engaging in his primary core mandates as the head of DiSEC to protect and safeguard inhabitants of the Sissala West District, the DCE has the penchant of creating insecurity especially targeting the very people whose toil and contributed significantly to making him a DCE. We believe that if anything happens to any of our polling station officers, the DCE should be the first to be investigated.

Our friends in the media, in the DCE's usual uncompromising and wanton disregard for our party development, the DCE has also vowed not to visit some communities/polling stations for reasons best known to him alone. This posture of the DCE is a rehearsed intention to alienate party members and divide the support base to enable him [DCE] centralizes the distribution of resources. No wonder he and the MP awarded District Development Funds projects to themselves. The DCE takes unilateral decisions and acts clandestinely on issues bordering on jobs, recruitment and other opportunities that have eluded party faithfuls across the Constituency. The DCE's behaviour is back by the MP, who said over his dead body will anybody relieve him (DCE) of his position once he is doing his (MP) bidding.

The affluent lifestyle of the DCE has negatively affected the party at the grassroots level. Within a matter of one week, the DCE was able to organize two expensive weddings in Hohoe in the Volta Region and Bullu in the Upper West Region from 14th - 22nd of April, 2018. Also, since assuming office, he has started and completed two houses at Tumu in the Sissala East Municipality and at Brekum in Brong Ahafo Region. He has bought a Saloon Car for the wife and she brags saying that “jealous people will suffer and whether they like it or not, NPP is for them”. The implication of his ostentatious lifestyle puts the party in a challenging and defensive position from opposition attacks.

Our Media friends, party growth and development is a process and not an event, but the DCE’s and MP’s attitude towards party growth and image building is very much disappointing. Under the 4th Republic, ruling governments have lost elections due to poor government and party relations. With this abundant evidence, the DCE has not found it necessary to engage the party structures in the constituency. It is a common knowledge that our DCE and MP do not patronize social functions in the District. Besides, they are the least worried whether our great party is represented in such events or not. This apparent lack of interest in the social events such as funerals of prominent persons which is at variance with the culture and values of our people is working against the image of the party and the government. This unfortunate situation then leaves the party executives with no option than to resort to the use of motorbikes/commercial vehicles to attend such functions in the interest of our party. Party executives undertake these activities without any support from the DCE or the MP.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is so because the only party vehicle in a good condition has been given to one Majeed (who is not a party officer) by the MP in connivance with the DCE. As if that is not enough, the Hon. MP followed up with a phone call to the constituency chairman warning him not to go near the vehicle, else he (Constituency chairman) risked being locked up. These actions and many other that cannot be conveyed through this medium are calculated steps to undermine the efforts of the hardworking party executives and stakeholders who worked tirelessly to win the Sissala West seat for the first time in the history of our party.

When the top echelons of our party got to know of the self-destructive mode our MP and DCE have put the party in our constituency, the MP was directed to resolve the challenges. In order to be seen not to be acting in defiance of the top hierarchy of the party, the MP organized a cosmetic meeting to ostensibly create a façade of a positive image for himself in the minds of our party top hierarchy. The MP however, lacks the credibility and the moral high grounds to resolve the problems that he together with the DCE actively created.

Predictably, the two attempted meetings which were well attended by the party constituency executives at the instance of the MP were rather used to further deepen the woes. In his usual condescending attitude towards the executive committee, the MP used the platform to rain insults and curses (many of which are not friendly to repeat here) on the executives for genuinely trying to put all the issues on discussion table for solutions. Expressions such as “I will not sit here and listen to thrash”; “I will not sit here to listen to philosophical nonsense, you think you are clever”; “some people have written nasty letters” “if you know I am not doing well, meet me at the Primaries”, “I will never sit in a meeting with the executives”; “DCE, if you have any meeting with these people, I will get you fired” etc. (emphasizing his endorsement of the DCE’s divisive tendencies) were used by the Hon. MP in the meetings aimed at resolving our differences.

Where the MP acknowledged the nauseating and disappointing conduct of Hon. Bakor, he was quick to add that, he will however not call for his head because he is told that if he does, he will not win the Constituency Primaries. If party interest, its management and growth can be substituted for the personal and selfish interest of the MP, then this is indeed unfortunate for the development and image building of our dear party in the constituency. The MP's posture is not conciliatory, but seeking to create a false impression of resolving the challenges. We see him as unfit to ably resolve the issues since he is a party to the conflict.

The MP is not visible and accessible in the Constituency. Hon. Patrick Adama stays in a hotel in another Constituency denying his Constituents access to discuss pertinent socio-development issues.

Our Media friends, Opinion Leaders, Regional and National executives, Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the sorry state of the party in the Sissala West Constituency.

But following the discourse, there is definitely a way forward if the various parties are committed to resolving it. We (the constituency executives and the other stakeholders) unanimously recommend the following to ensure the growth and sustainability of NPP gains in the constituency;

1. The executive committee is calling on the leadership of the party at the regional, national level as well as the regional minister and all well-meaning party stalwarts to intervene to bring the MP to focus on his core social responsibilities to the constituency

2. The executive committee is also calling on the appointing authority and national executive committee as a matter of urgency to relieve the Hon. DCE (Mr. Mohammed Zackaria Bakor) of his position to pave way for peace and development of the party in order to consolidate the party's gains in 2016 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in the constituency since his continuous stay in office is a disincentive to the party’s growth.

We trust that these recommendations would immediately engage the attention of authorities to ensure a sustainable growth of NPP in the District.

Long live NPP Sissala West!

Long live NPP Upper West!!

Long live NPP!!!

Long live Ghana!!!!

Thank you