KMA PM Campaign turns acrimonious… But frontrunner vows to win position

AT LONG last, the election of a Presiding Member (PM) for the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), which position has become vacant since October 2008, has been scheduled to take place tomorrow at the Prempeh Assembly Hall in Kumasi, in the forenoon.

The election and swearing-in of whoever is elected as presiding member would precede the confirmation of the President's nominee, in the person of Mr. Samuel Sarpong of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

Nana Kofi Senyah, Assembly Member for the New Suame Electoral Area, and former presiding member of the House, Mr. Owusu Prempeh, who is also the Adebisokese Chief, and Mr. Amidu Gariba, Assembly Member for Anloga, are said to be in the race for the position of Presiding Member.

Notwithstanding these arrangements, The Chronicle has gathered that the occasion could be marred, as a group intends to disorganise the two ceremonies with the disqualification of Nana Senyah, who is highly tipped to carry the day, and the imposition of a candidate.

Elected members of the KMA have affirmed their resolution to support the bid of Nana Kofi Senyah, to contest for the position.

The members have decided to vote for Nana Senyah unopposed, and said they had confidence in their colleague to deliver, in line with the objective of reconstituting the KMA.

According to them, Nana Senyah is objective and can bring his rich experience to bear of the operations and functions of the Assembly.

The position of the assembly members is to resist alleged attempts by any interest group to meddle in the affairs of the local government system, at the expense of the development of the metropolis.

They said as they would not tolerate any Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) who would run the KMA on partisan lines, since that would impede the development of Kumasi, so would they not tolerate any group of persons who would embark on any unholy mission to influence the members in the choice of a leader.

They say they would not have anything to do with appointed members, who were not conversant with the operations of the assembly, and stifle development due the residents of Kumasi, neither would they countenance the imposition of chiefs as presiding members.

The members say they see Mr. Samuel Sarpong and Nana Kofi Senyah as a perfect match, for the MCE and PM positions respectively, to manage Kumasi in the years ahead.

But a Mafia group, whose membership comprises of big wigs of the previous government, and some contractors, are bent on employing all means to get Nana Kofi Senyah disqualified.

The Chronicle gathered that the group intends to go as far as restraining Nana Senyah at the eleventh hour from contesting the position, in an attempt to cover up the alleged misdeeds and improprieties of the previous government at the local level, and thus protect their interests in the face of the law on willfully causing financial loss to the state.

The group are reportedly said to be comfortable with a government appointee as a presiding member than Nana Senyah, who knows the insides of the operations of the Local Government system.

Nana Senyah has been linked to missing of bags of fertiliser meant for the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP).

The allegation is that, somewhere in June 2007, 6,850 bags of fertiliser were consigned to the Youth in Agriculture module of the NYEP in the Kumasi Metropolis.

In defence, Nana Senyah has drawn a line between “allocation” and “stealing,” and would therefore not accept wrongdoing neither would he yield to pressure to back out of the contest.

He claims the fertiliser were properly allocated to him by the Metro Co-ordinating Director, Mr. M. K. Addae, per a memo in the same way 50 bags were allocated to the Finance Officer, and that the mode of payment was duly discussed and accepted before he took delivery of them (fertiliser).

Mr. Addae has given a statement to the police, to corroborate Nana Senyah's argument, but he would not talk to the press about the matter.

Mrs. Jemima Nancy Asare, Public Relations Officer of the KMA, says the police are investigating the circumstances under which the bags of fertiliser got missing from the stores.