Residents of Agoogoso threaten to vote against NPP if ...
With barely five months to the general election, residents of Agoogoso near Dompoase in the Fomena Constituency in the Ashanti Region have threatened to vote against the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government if it fails to attend to their infrastructure needs.
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The Agoogoso community is known to be one of the strongholds of the NPP in the Ashanti Region securing over 95 per cent votes cast in the 2020 general election.
Speaking at a press conference last Tuesday, a spokesperson for the agitated residents, Gideon Ababio, expressed disappointment at their Member of Parliament (MP), Andrew Amoako Asiamah, for failing to lobby for the roads to be fixed.
Mr Asiamah, who doubles as the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, together with the regional Minister, Simon Osei- Mensah and the District Chief Executive, Eric Kusi, are being accused of neglecting and depriving the community of infrastructure development.
Concerns
Throwing more light on their concerns, the agitated residents, who were clad in red and black cloth, said since the government took over power in 2017, the only project they could boast of was a 10-seater toilet facility which remained uncompleted.
The spokesperson said efforts to get authorities to complete the project had proven futile, resulting in people defecating indiscriminately with its attendant health challenges.
Mr Ababio further stated that the existing classroom blocks in the basic school in the community were in a deplorable state, which could not also accommodate the ever-increasing population of the school. According to him, the community started a two-unit KG block with washrooms which was at the lintel level in 2019 but has been halted due to lack of funds.
"We sought support from our MP, Andrew Amoako Asiamah, in November 2020. He promised to complete the project but has failed to honour his promise. "But through the efforts of the assembly member and Nananom (chiefs), the project is about 98 per cent complete," he said.
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He also touched on the absence of teachers' bungalows, which force teachers to travel about 14km to report to work in the community.
Health
On healthcare delivery, he said due to the absence of health facilities in the community, accessing quality healthcare had become very difficult. The spokesperson called on authorities to put up a CHPS compound to alleviate their plight.
Corroborating the narrative, Nana Asamoah Berko I, Chief of Agoogoso, who received the petition for onward transmission to the authorities, said the challenges of the community were enormous despite their support to the ruling government over the years.
Nana Asamoah Berko cautioned that the ruling government risked losing their votes if urgent efforts were not made to complete the abandoned toilet project, renovate the school blocks, construct the CHPS compound, ICT lab and teacher’s bungalows before the December 7 presidential and parliamentary election.