The Ahafo regional chairman of the governing New Patriotic party, Mr. Kwabena Owusu Sekyere, expresses his gratitude to his government for the creation of the Ahafo region to help develop the region.
He noted that there are a lot of projects that his government has done within the region that show a good impact for the party, but that’s not enough if the main Tepa to Goaso road is not completed.
The party has given a lot of job opportunities to a lot of people in Ahafo, and there is more to come for those who haven’t gotten some yet, so they have to trust the NPP government.
There are 315,000 voters in Ahafo per the voter register, and our target for 2024 is to secure at least 200,000 votes in the upcoming elections, so what will the party do to meet that target? 1. What are the benefits we have gained from the creation of the Ahafo Region?
We will have answers to that because we have done some major road projects like Noberkwa to Sankore, which is the road to the hometown of Hon. Eric Opoku, the NDC Member of Parliament who has been in parliament for almost 24 years but couldn’t do it. We have also done all these roads: Teechire to Adrobaa, Subbreso, Sikafre Mogya, and Akrodie to Asumura.
Our main issue for us, the party leaders in the Ahafo region, is the Goaso to Tepa road. We beg the finance minister, Hon. Ken Ofori Atta, to give money to the minister of roads, Hon. Amoako Atta, to do the Goaso to Tepa road so the NPP party can win the 200,000 votes that are the target for the 2024 election.
The main road that links to the Ahafo regional capital Goaso is the Tepa road, and under normal circumstances, it shouldn’t take you more than 20–25 minutes to reach Tepa, but because of its bad state, it can take you more than 2 hours from Tepa to Goaso, and that is really bad for a new region like Ahafo.
If we don’t do this road by 2024, it is going to affect us and give us a big showdown because that’s the main road from Kumasi through Tepa to enter the regional capital, and there are a lot of towns on that stretch like Tepa, Acherensua, Hwidiem, Kenyansi, Wromso, Nkaseim, and Goaso, and in all those areas we need more votes from there, so if the roads are not constructed in time, do you think they will vote for us?
The President has done well for building all these regional administration blocks, like the Regional Education Block at Bechem, Hwidiem Health Center, Goaso Agricultural Block, Kukuom Feeder Roads Block, Duayaw Nkwanta Urban Roads, and Mim Health Insurance Office.
All of them are being commissioned, but our biggest problem right now is the Tepa to Goaso road, and all the Amanhene in Ahafo are not happy with the dilapidated state of the roads through their towns because the dust and mardy are causing a lot of sickness.
Chairman Kwabena Owusu Sekyere pleaded with finance minister Ken Ofori Atta and party leadership that Ahafo is one of the strongholds for the NPP, and it has left not more than a year and a half to the main 7th December elections, so they have to give much attention to the strongholds of the NPP and do a lot of development in those areas to amalgamate its base to secure the seat again in 2024 elections. Bediako to Kasapin, Kenyansi to Hwideim, and Tepa to Goaso roads are in the hands of Kofi Job, so the government should give him money to come and complete them in time.
In Ahafo Region, if ten (10) people are going to cast their votes, you can vividly say that seven (7) of them will vote for the NPP, so we have to complain to our government to do it for us because we play an integral role in winning the presidential elections for the NPP, Chairman Kwabena Owusu Sekyere added.