Don’t Drag Our Chief’s Name Into Your Dirty Politics – Zongo Youth Warns Afenyo-Markin

A group calling itself the Concerned Youth of Winneba Zongo have cautioned the Effutu Constituency Member of Parliament (MP), Hon. Alexander Afenyo-Markin to desist from the unauthorized use of the letterhead of the Chief of Winneba Zongo, Sarki Sulemana Salaga IV.

The group has expressed displeasure following the MP’s decision to allegedly use the supposed letterhead of the Winneba Zong meant to secure funds from individuals and corporate organizations in support of a Zongo Educational Endowment Fund.

However, the MP, the group alleged, strangely turned the supposed letter meant to raise funds into an apology letter addressed to the Vice Chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba Rev. Fr. Prof.Anthony Afful-Broni.

In a press statement from the Concerned Youth, they have kicked against the move whiles warning Hon. Afenyo-Markin to stay away from such actions as it brings the name of the respected king into disrepute.

They have also accused the MP of being behind the recent impasse at the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) and has called on President Akufo-Addo and Education Minister Hon. Mathew Opoku Prempeh to conduct a further probe into the matter.

“We are also calling on the President, His Excellency Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo and the Minister for Education, the Hon. Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh to investigate deeply the UEW matter since we are convinced that the Hon. Alex Afenyo-Markin is the brains behind all the chaos at the university. They should also listen to the Vice-Chancellor and other objective staff of the university to ascertain the truth”, part of the statement said.

Below is the full statement from the Concerned Youth of Winneba Zongo.

CONCERNED WINNEBA ZONGO YOUTH WARN HON. ALEX AFENYO-MARKIN AGAINST DRAGGING THE NAME OF ZONGO CHIEF INTO DISREPUTE

For Immediate Release

Friday 23 August 2019

1. The Concerned Youth of Winneba Zongo wish to send a strong caution to the Effutu Member of Parliament, Hon. Alexander Afenyo-Markin for the unauthorised use of the letterhead of the Chief of WINNEBA ZONGO, Sarki Sulemana Salaga IV.

2. The said letterhead was issued to the Hon. Alexander Afenyo-Markin upon request to be used in a drive to secure funds from individuals and corporate organisations in support of a Zongo Educational Endowment Fund.

3. Strangely however, the Member of Parliament for Effutu wickedly put together a statement on the said letterhead attributed and purported to have been signed by Sarki Sulemana Salaga IV, with a calculated intention to run down and tarnish the image of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), Rev. Fr. Prof. Anthony Afful-Broni in order to paint him black and to achieve Afenyo-Markin’s personal parochial interest.

4. For emphasis, the Winneba Zongo Chief, has at no point in time made any such baseless allegation against the Vice-Chancellor of UEW.

5. The Hon. Alex Afenyo-Markin recently made a fake Facebook post, saying that the Chief of Winneba Zongo had apologised to him over his public denial of the said statement.

6. We wish to state emphatically that the Facebook post by the Hon. Afenyo-Markin is a palpable falsehood that should be treated with the contempt it deserves.

7. The Concerned Youth of Winneba Zongo spearheaded by SARKI SAMARI (Youth Chief), Alhaji Mohammed Sanni and other leaders within the Winneba Zongo Community demand that the Member of Parliament for Effutu, the Hon. Afenyo-Markin apologizes to our Chief for the unauthorised use of his letterhead and bringing his name into disrepute. We wonder in what capacity our Chief could have made such baseless condemnation of the UEW Vice-Chancellor with the said alleged statement since the Chief is not a member of the University Governing Council. Since the Zongo Chief is a close associate of Rev. Fr. Afful-Broni, how can he turn around to condemn him in that bizarre manner?

8. We further wish to draw attention to some details to demonstrate that the said statement was not from the Chief nor his Secretary. The spelling of SARKI (meaning Chief in Hausa) was rather spelt “SALAKI”. This is indeed an avoidable mistake which any lettered person from the Zongo would not commit. This clearly accentuates the fact that the letter was not written by any person from the Winneba Zongo Community.

9. We, the concerned Youth of Winneba Zongo want to send a strong warning to Hon. Alexander Afenyo-Markin to the effect that Zongo is united and is one family. Therefore, he should stay away from us. The Hon. Alex Afenyo-Markin is not a unifier and has always created divisions in the constituency.

10. Is Hon. Alex Afenyo-Markin the only Member of Parliament with a university sited in his constituency? Hon. Afenyo-Markin should be rest assured that if he has succeeded in creating factions among other groups in Winneba, including the Fancy Dress, the Deer Festival, and the Winneba Chieftancy, we, the Concerned Winneba Zongo Youth shall not sit aloof for him to add the University which serves as the only major institution boosting economic activities in Winneba to the list of troubled institutions.

We strongly admonish the MP to take Zongo out of his diabolic agenda.

11. We also want to use this opportunity to advise our Zongo youth to be very careful in dealing with such a questionable character as exhibited in his unauthorised use of our Zongo Chief's letterhead.

12. We are also calling on the President, His Excellency Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo and the Minister for Education, the Hon. Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh to investigate deeply the UEW matter since we are convinced that the Hon. Alex Afenyo-Markin is the brains behind all the chaos at the university. They should also listen to the Vice-Chancellor and other objective staff of the university to ascertain the truth.

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13. Finally, we want to warn Hon. Alex Afenyo-Markin that the Zongo Chief is more or less at the level of his grandfather, and so, some of us his grand children, will not sit down unconcerned while his name and chieftaincy are dragged into disrepute. Winneba Zongo will forever remain united!!

Abdullah Ishaq Farrakhan

(Convener)

Can be reached via:

Email: concernzongoyouth@ gmail.com

Tel: 0207333322