Ashaiman, June 11, GNA -- The Member of Parliament for Ashaiman, Mr. Alfred Kwame Nyale Agbesi has stated that he welcomes anyone who wishes to contest the Ashaiman seat in the forthcoming 2008 Presidential and Parliamentary elections.

He said he has never and would not resort to violence or issue threats to contest the elections as alleged by an Assembly member of Obakatse electoral area at Ashaiman, Mr Thomas Adongo. Mr Agbesi made his stand clear at a press conference held at Ashaiman on Saturday in reaction to allegation by Mr. Adongo in the media that he (Agbesi) has issued several threats on his (Adongo's) life because he has expressed the wish to contest the seat in the next elections. He said Adongo was free to contest the parliamentary elections and that he posed no challenge to him.

He said he has never had any confrontation or problems with Mr Adongo and so expressed surprise at the allegation and called on the public to disregard it as it is false, baseless and unfounded.

The MP explained that ideally, he would not have reacted to the issue since the Ashaiman police are handling it but the Assembly member continued to peddle false news about him daily in the media, which the uninformed public were likely to believe.

When contacted on telephone a senior police officer at the Ashaiman Police station confirmed the alleged threat of life by Mr. Agbesi as reported by Mr Adongo and said the matter was still under investigations.