Juabeso/Bia NPP Dying

Kumasi -- Members OF the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have been urged to investigate the circumstances that led to the poor political performance in the Juabeso/Bia Constituency in the Western Region, during the 2004 general elections, and come out with strategies to curb the trend in future elections.

According to some of the youth in the area, since the introduction of democratic governance in the country, in 1992, NPP has not won any election in the Juabeso/Bia area.

The youth have blamed the situation on the District Chief Executive of the area, Mr Benjamin Armah, and other NPP constituency executives, including the chairman, Mr Afuka, and the women's organiser, Ms Amma Baidoo.

They accused the DCE of non-performance, dereliction of duty, and high-handedness in the discharge of his duties, and as a result, accounting for the poor political performance of the party.

Branding the DCE as a political disaster in the district, the youth, majority of whom are NPP supporters, threatened mayhem, and take to the streets if President John Agyekum Kufuor makes the mistake to re-appoint Mr Armah as the substantive DCE for the district.

They also threatened to advise themselves if Mr Armah was appointed a DCE, again, as his non-performance has brought untold hardships and suffering, to the people.

One of the youth, who pleaded anonymity, noted that as a result of the media's inability to gather and access information in certain remote areas of the country for public consumption, high-profile personalities placed in authority, are not adequately monitored, they tend to be lackadaisical in the discharge of their duties.

He regretted that a contract the DCE awarded the constituency chairman, Mr Afuka, to put up a school block for the people of Essam, a community in the district, about three years ago, has not been executed.

According to the youth, they do not understand why the constituency chairman and the women's organiser have been using the party's Nissan pick-up allocated the constituency for official party functions, was rather used for funerals, and to monitor activities of illegal chain-saw operations in the area.

The Juabeso/Bia youth warned that if NPP cares to improve its electoral performance in the district, then something urgent ought to be done to avert the situation.

They threatened to advise themselves if the party executives failed to act on the case.

Meanwhile, stringent efforts made by Daily Guide to contact the DCE and the constituency chairman to react to the accusations levelled against them, had proved futile.