Some disgruntled members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have made a strong appeal to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to not approve the acting District Chief Executive for Binduri, Ayinga Abagri, for a second term in office.
The NPP members, who are made up of constituency executives, elders and some concerned youth, made the call at a press conference in Bolgatanga.
“We wish at this point to proceed to throw light on some recent misinformation being churned out by a group of uninformed young men and women, appealing to the President to elevate Mr Ayinga Abagri to a higher position or retain him as DCE. Their contention is that Mr Ayinga Abagri worked so hard during the first term of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo and that endeared the people of the district /constituency who expressed their gratitude by voting for the NPP Parliamentary candidate in the December 2020 election,” the group said in a statement read by an elder of the party, Philip Ayamba.
According to Mr Ayamba, the assertion made by the group supporting the acting DCE is far from the truth because the NPP performed woefully in the 2020 general elections at the Nayoko polling station where Mr Ayinga Abagri has been voting. He said, for instance, the NDC obtained 421 votes while the NPP secured just a 135 votes at the parliamentary election in 2016. The NDC scored 306 votes as NPP had 239 in the presidential election that year.
In the 2020 election, the NPP had 160 votes as compared to the NDC 470 votes in the parliamentary election. The outcomes, according to the organisers of the press conference, are a clear indication that Mr Ayinga Abagri worked against the fortunes of the NPP in the Binduri Constituency.
Mr Ayamba also noted that Mr Abagri worked behind the scenes to undermine the party’s campaign in the constituency by causing delay in the execution of some projects in the district. He said it took the intervention of the NPP’s parliamentary candidate at th6e time, Abdulai Abanga, to push for some of the projects to be executed. He mentioned the Binduri-Bazua Road Bridge, Binduri Primary School Building and the Binduri Market Stores.
Mr Ayamba also served a notice that the people of Binduri would resist any attempt to retain Mr Ayinga Abagri the DCE for Binduri.
“We the people of Binduri shall very strongly resist the Excellency choice with all due respect,” he added.
Mr Ayamba also listed reasons responsible for the NPP’s victory in the constituency. They include: “the unity with which Party Elders & Patrons most of whom hail from the Binduri Central brought to bear on the campaign; key party Individuals who have always played significant roles in the affairs of the NPP in the Binduri Constituency; the resolute youth from the Binduri Community who after heeding to the advice of some committed Patrons of the Party decided to very strongly come out to campaign for both the President and the then-PC (Hon. Abdulai Abanga) and the highly commendable role played by various Election & Votes Collation Days’ Party Agents including most especially the IT Co-ordination Team.”
The disgruntled group however thanked the president for nominating their son, Stephen Yakubu, as the Upper East Regional Minister-designate due to the pivotal role he is said to have been playing over the years for the party.
The group assured that Stephen Yakubu would not disappoint the president and pleaded with the president to offer the only NPP Member of Parliament from the Upper East Region, Abdulai Abanga, a ministerial position.
The group also called on the party’s General Secretary, John Boadu, to send a good research team to Binduri to find out “what is happening on the ground” to enable the party retain the seat in 2024 or else lose the seat.
Gaspard Ayuureneeya.
