Kukurantumi -- Thirty-Three executive members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in 38 wards and towns in the newly-created Abuakwa North Constituency in the Eastern Region have defected to the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

The former executive members, made up of ward and polling station chairmen, youth and women organisers and secretaries, are from towns such as Kukurantumi, Tontro, Tafo, Osiem, Bosodumaser, Ettokrom. Aboabo and Sokode Dwaso.

Announcing their defection at a press conference in Kukurantumi, the constituency headquarters on Saturday, the leader of the group, Alhaji Ismala Saliff, the former NDC Ward Chairman for New Tafo (Darsalam), said their decision to defect en maase was due to the good works of the NPP government and the election of Mr J. B. Danquah, a nephew of the late Dr J. B. Danquah, one of Ghana?s founding fathers, to contest the parliamentary seat in the December elections.

He said although they supported the NDC when it was in power for years, it could neither provide the basic infrastructure for the people in their commmunities nor give financial support to those engaged in small-scale businesses to alleviate poverty.

Alhaji Saliff said the NPP government, on the other hand, had done a lot by providing almost all the basic necessities of life, such as water, schools, clinics and markets, as well as cushioning the people with micro-finance schemes to boost their small-scale businesses.

He said the election of Mr Danquah to contest the parliamentary seat had also given them a ray of hope, because as an industrialist and technocrat, he would be able to fulfil his promise of bringing in foreign investors to complement the efforts of local ones in exploiting the industrial potential of the area, particularly cocoa.

That, he said, would make the large army of unemployed youth in the area to get jobs for a living. ?We gave all our support to the NDC but cannot boast of anything meaningful but abject poverty, which the NPP government is seriously tackling. We will, therefore, throw our lot behind the Kufuor administration to retain power to continue with the good works,? he stated to thunderous applause.

Mr Danquah, on his part, said if elected to Parliament, he would establish a number of agro-based industries in the area and called on the defectors to work hard for a convincing victory in the election.

The NPP Constituncy Chairman, Mr Douglas Martin Asare, who welcomed the defectors, called on the rank and file of the party to accept them, since that would strengthen the NPP to win the December elections.