Asene residents demonstrate against MP
Residents of Akyem Asene near Oda have embarked on a demonstration against the New Patriotic Party (NPP) legislator, George Kwame Aboagye, for neglecting the town's development for the past eight years.
They accused the MP, popularly known as Oluwa, of spearheading the provision of 33 development projects for Akyem Akroso, 14 projects at Manso and only one project at Asene, which is the largest and most populous community in the constituency.
Demonstration
The demonstrators, numbering over 1,000, marched through the main streets of Asene carrying placards, some of which read “Oluwa has disappointed us,” “Asene needs development not party politics,” “Oluwa’s promises are empty,” “Promise made promise broken,” “Think Asene, dream Asene,” and “We want results not excuses.”
About 50 police personnel were deployed by the Oda Divisional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police Jeffrey Darko, who observed the peaceful demonstration.
The leaders of the demonstration on the theme “Akyem Asene Deserves Better,” Michael Acquah, secretary; I.K. Acheampong, chairman; and Kenneth Oduro, Public Relations Officer, took turns to address the more than 15 media personnel who covered the peaceful demonstration.
Health centre
The leaders said Mr Aboagye built a health centre on the Asene Roman Catholic JHS park, which served as the playground for all district and zonal sporting events in 2020, promising to replace it with an artificial turf at the Asene Methodist Primary School park.
They said no progress had occurred after grading the site, and weeds had taken over the facility.
They stated that Mr Aboagye had announced at several fora since 2017 to construct a steel bridge over the Adim stream to link Asene with four outlying communities, but the promise was never fulfilled.
They also claimed that the MP promised to complete a community library, which was started by the former MP for the area, Yaw Owusu-Boateng, but the promise was never fulfilled.
They said Mr Aboagye announced at an emergency meeting with the demonstrators, convened by the Divisional Police Commander Jeffery Darko at his office recently, that he could no longer undertake the promised projects because his government was in opposition.
The demonstrators urged the MP to abandon the idea of the astro turf and instead replace the old field with natural grass to enable the schools to organise their sporting activities on it, as they had no playing ground in the area.
MP
When the Daily Graphic contacted Mr Aboagye, he confirmed that he had assured the people of Asene that he would deliver the three projects. However, the prevailing circumstances would not enable him to fulfil the promise.
He gave the assurance that he would use his position as the ranking member for the energy committee in Parliament to lobby Ghana Gas to construct the Astroturf for Asene.
He, however, said he could not construct the bridge over the Adim stream as the NPP government, which was to undertake the project, was no longer in power.
When the Asene-Manso-Akroso District Assembly was contacted about whether it had any plans to work on the abandoned projects at Asene, the District Coordinating Director, Gladys Addai, said the assembly had no records of the three projects.
