Politics of Friday, 9 July 2004

Source: Chronicle

Ashantis will put NDC back in power - Ohene-Agyekum

A former Ashanti Regional Minister and Minister of State in responsible for Chieftaincy Affairs, in the NDC government, Daniel Ohene Agyekum, has declared Ashanti?s support for the NDC in this year?s election to win power in order to rescue the country from its economic woes.

According to Agyekum, Ashantis are also fed up with the lies of the ruling New Patriotic Party and therefore ruled to vote for the NDC on 7 December.

Agyekum, a career diplomat, said this at Bole in the Northern Region, when addressing a large crowd of NDC activists at the forecourt of Bolewura?s Palace, during the visit of the NDC Presidential candidate to the area.

According to the former minister, the NDC would win between 30% and 40% of total votes in Ashanti.

This anticipated change of voting trend in the Ashanti, according to Agyekum, was due mainly to the NPP?s inability to deliver as they promised the people in 2000.

He said, ?since the NPP assumed office over three years ago, the only achievements chalked by it was poverty and misery?, adding ? hian scent noo? agyi babia.?

He asked the youth whether the NPP has been able to fulfill its promise of creating jobs for them. Here the Youth answered ?no, only cassava?.

Agyekum continued that NPP only promised jobs that it could never create, just because they wanted power.

The ex-minister recalled that the planting of cassava was there before the advent of NPP and its government.

He noted that in 2000, the NPP hooted at ex-President Rawlings and his ministers as thieves, but now President Kufour and his ministers are now looting the nation, which he claimed, ?President Kufour himself has endorsed as human nature.?

NDC ministers, as said by Agyakum, left office without anything, because they were serving the country with clean hands and sacrifice.

He lamented that the Kufour?s government has however branded some of the ministers as thieves and sent them into jail.

?Now Kufour?s ministers are putting up mansions in towns and cities like Koforidua, Accra and other big towns and all over the country,? he alleged.

Earlier, the Bolewura Amankwa told the Flag bearer of the NDC, Prof Mills that they as custodians of the land would do anything possible to support whichever government, would emerge as a winner in the upcoming general elections.

He urged the NDC to conduct itself in a manner to ensure peaceful elections to ensure peace in the country.

A sub-Chief of Bole, Salawura Alex Adam Iddi commended the NDC for its development projects it brought to the people of Bole.

The MP for the area and ex-Minister of Communications, John Mahama explained the rationale behind the delay of installation of TV extension to enable clear vision of television in Bole.

He said the NPP government?s delay of the GBC modernization project, had denied the people of Bole and the country as a whole clear TV signals for the past several years.