A group of youths describing themselves as “members of the Akropong youth wing of the NDC” on Saturday staged a demonstration in front of the Okuapemhene’s palace against the nomination of Mr Anthony Gyampoh, Akuapem North district chief executive, as the NDC parliamentary candidate for Akropong constituency.
The group later presented a copy of a resolution addressed to the vice-president Professor John Atta Mills who is also the NDC presidential candidate, to the Okuapenhene, Oseadeeyo Addo Dankwa, III.
In the resolution, the group, which said they preferred Mr Alex Akuffo, Deputy Minister for Works and Housing, accused Mr Gyampoh of discrimination against Akropong in the citing of development projects and offices of decentralised government organisations which should have been at Akropong, the district capital.
It mentioned the establishment of the district offices of the Ghana National Fire Service and the District Health Service office at Mampong, as examples and threatened not to vote for Mr Gyampoh “even though we shall all vote for Professor Mills to be president.”
Reacting to the allegations against him, Mr Gyampoh said all the projects mentioned in the resolution of the protestors were in place before he became the district chief executive of Akuapem North, except the offices of the District Health Services.
He said that the district assembly initially acquired a plot of land for the construction of the Health offices at Akropong but the District Director of Health Services protested on the grounds that the place had no electricity, and that could affect the storage of vaccines and other sensitive material.
Mr Gyampoh said the issue was referred to the Akuapem North district assembly which decided that the office be cited at Mampong, near the Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital.
Mr Victor Doku, NDC secretary of the Akropong constituency, expressed his displeasure at the attempt by the group to impose their views on the party in the constituency and said before the national leadership of the party came out with the formula for the selection of a parliamentary candidate the constituency organised an outreach programme where 13 wards out of the 14 proposed Mr Gyampoh to contest the constituency seat.
Mr Doku said the Akropong ward requested to be given some time to think about the issue but following support shown for Mr Gyampoh by the other wards, the party formally approached him to stand as the constituency’s parliamentary candidate in this year’s elections.
Mr Doku said Mr Gyampoh accepted the offer on the grounds that the entire party would support him. He said later at a meeting, all delegates, except those from the Akropong ward, assured Mr Gyampoh of their support.
