Re: Afigya Kwabre District Is Not For Honourable Kan Dapaah And Family

We have noted with concern the divisive comments attributed to a so called Concern Youth of Afigya Kwabre District. We would not go down to the same path. It is necessary to note that the district was carved out of the Afigya Sekyere and Kwabre Districts with Boamang as the capital.

However, due to the influence of the then Ashanti Regional Minister, Honourable Owusu Ansah, Kodie became the de facto capital although in the Legislative Instrument setting up the district, Boamang is recorded as the capital.

Citizens from the Afigya portion of the district did not protest through litigation and it was agreed that some key sectors of the district including agriculture and security should be located at Boamang, hence the district Police Command and agriculture offices are at Boamang.

Honourable Kwasi Karikari Acheamfour, who has no blood relations with Hon Albert Kan Dapaah, except that they both come from Maase, had to resign his job as the Deputy Director (Administration of DVLA) to take up the position of the District Chief Executive. He did not even receive his first pay before the government was voted out of power in 2008.

Honourable Karikari Achamfour has played critical role in the politics of the district having served for several years as the Presiding Member of the Afigya Sekyere District Assembly until the new district was created. He has also contested in the parliamentary primaries of the constituency.

He was a member of the Danquah-Busiah Club, the parent political organisation of the N.P.P in 1991. He has served as a secretary of the Afigya Sekyere West Constituency, now Afigya Kwabre North Constituency from 1992 – 1996. He had also served as the Ashanti Region representative of the National Association of Local Government (NALAG). He is thus a key member of the party in the district.

It is instructive to note that Honourable Karikari Achamfour was used as a decoy to stand as an independent parliamentary candidate when Honourable Kan Dapaah’s political fortunes were threatened by the National Democratic Congress Administration towards the 1996 elections as Director of Radio Eye.

He had to do that even as a public servant who risked dismissal if the government at the time had taken notice of his partisan interests.

Indeed in the 2016 election, Honourable Karikari Achamfour was one of the few former District Chief Executives under the Kufour Administration, who proffered their services to join the campaigns of Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo and also engaged in house to house campaigns in the Afigya Kwabre North constituency. For the records, we are aware that Hon. Karkari Achamfour was a member of the former MDCES/DCES 2016 campaign Team in Ashanti, member of the Management and Advisory Campaign Team (Ashanti) for Kwabre East, Afigya Sekyere East and Kwabre North Constituencies. All these activities are verifiable.

Hon. Karikari Achamfour is a hardworking and committed member of the party. His loyalty and faith in the party and the district is unconditional. For those so called concerned Youth to try and malign Hon Kan Dapaah and belittle the contributions of Hon Karikari Achamfour whose political activities dates back from 1991 to date is wicked, evil and bad.

It must be clear to all that Honourable Karikari Achamfour has developed his own independent political career and can never be a surrogate of Honourable Kan Dapaah.

That the DCE and the presiding member will be coming from the same area also does not hold any water. That at a certain time, Hon. Osei Yaw Anning was a presiding member and Hon. Oppong Kyekyeku was also a DCE. So what is the great deal about this?

The 1992 Constitution abhors discrimination on the basis of where individuals come from and if indded those maligning Honourable Kan Dapaah and Karikari Achamfour have meant well, they would not have made the innuendo that Honourable Karkari Achamfour is incompetent and think that he only reason that he may be appointed as DCE is because he is related to Honourable Kan Dapaah, which is never true.

It is clear that those involved are using nepotism to advance a baseless argument as they all come from the Kwabre area of the district although they claim to be representative of the whole district.

Their assertion that they would not allow anybody from the north of the district to be appointed DCE because the Presiding Member is from the north of the district suggest plainly that they come from the Kwabre area.

Judging from the biased and prejudiced position that the group is coming from if Hon Karikari Achamfour had not performed creditably during the six month period that he served as DCE, they would not have hesitated in pointing out his failures.

In the face of these realities their claim must be dismissed since it has no foundation and is just a pack of lies, a pursuit of nepotism and baseless splintering of the people for their own egocentrism. This kind of politics must not be entertained in the district and in the N.P.P family as a whole.

SIGNED

1. Sefa D. Gideon [0242-628394] ………………………………….
2. Isaac O. Mensah [0244-036902] ………………………………….
3. Kankam Boadu [0243-288321] ………………………………….
4. Nana Boakye Yiadom [0244-454630] ………………………………….
5. Kofi Owusu Afriyie [0246-671003] ………………………………….
6. Linda Quainoo [0554-234010] ………………………………….
7. Abena Kyerewaah [0541-524167] ………………………………….
8. Florence Agyekum [0244-028367] ………………………………….
9. Isaac Kwakye [0243-541849] ………………………………….
10. Dominic Anane [0244-751908 / 0265-301887] ………………………………….