BNI investigates ‘missing’ donation

The Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) is investigating the Atwima Nwabiagya District Assembly over an alleged diversion of building materials donated by President Kufuor for the relocation of Owabi township.

President Kufuor, in 2005 provided the town with 500 bags of cement and 170 packets of aluminium roofing sheets following the flooding of the town after a downpour.

The materials were said to have been forwarded to the district assembly by the Ashanti Regional Secretariat of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO). This has been confirmed by the Regional Coordinator, Kofi Osei Amponsah, to the Times.

However, the materials apparently never got to their destination.

The BNI investigations have been necessitated by a misunderstanding between the District Chief Executive (DCE), Thomas Ofori-Donkor and the District NADMO Coordinator, Kofi Adu over the issue.

Though it was said that the materials were sent to the Assembly for onward distribution to the Owabi community during the tenure of the former DCE, Mr. Ofori-Donkor c1aimed he received only 100 bags of cement and 70 packets of aluminium roofing sheets.

But, Mr. Adu insisted that the DCE was presented with 430 bags of cement and 170 packets of roofing sheets.

About a month ago, Mr. Adu was taken hostage for more than three hours by the youth of Owabi who were demanding that he should produce the materials.

He had gone to the town to assess the level of destruction follow¬ing a rainstorm.

It took the intervention of personnel from the Police Buffalo Unit from Kumasi for Mr. Adu to be released.

The situation has resulted in divisions in the Assembly and to avoid "any hunky punky," Mr. Ofori-Donkor told the Times that he had asked the BNI to investigate the matter.

According to him, the Assembly used 100 bags of cement and 70 packets of the roofing sheets because he did not know that they were meant for the Owabi township.

He explained that the waybill covering the materials did not specify that they were for Owabi township. Rather, it showed that it was for the district.

The DCE said he will replace the used items when the last quarter of the District Assembly Common Fund is released.

Some elders and other opinion leaders of the town led by the Odikro, Nana Sarfo Kantanka, told the Times that they got to know of the donation of the materials about three months ago.