The former Upper East Deputy Regional Minister Hon. Frank Fuseini Adongo has added his voice following the ethnocentric pronouncement made by Mr. Hopeson Adorye against Northerners. Apexnewsgh.com report
According to the former Deputy Regional Minister “Northerners deserve and should be treated with respect.” We deserve gold for our many years of service to the NPP.”
Hon Fuseini in an interview with Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen of Apexnewsgh.com on Friday, August 19, 2022, asked his people from the North to disregard such pronouncement from a party member who should know better, especially when the NPP is already fighting to overcome the NDC manufactured negative perception that the NPP belongs to the people of Akan.
“I want my people to understand, that what Hopeson stated was an individual mistake, not an NPP mistake. What he said cannot represent the views of the NPP’s nearly 5 million members, which is why he has accepted responsibility for his actions by apologizing,” he said.
However, describing Mr, Adorye’s pronouncement as a ‘reckless comment’, the former Zebilla legislator urged all sons and daughters of the five northern regions to forgive Mr. Adorye for his unfortunate loosed talk which does not represent the NPP’s position as a political party.
Dr. Adongo expressed worried that the opposition NDC, will use Hopeson Adorye’s remark to knock the heads of NPP against the people of the north in the 2024 general election.
Mr. Adorye is reported to have said during the walk, “The NPP has a tradition. Our tradition is Busia, Danquah and Dombo. Danquah represents Eastern Region and the bottom (south), Danquah represents Ashanti Region and the Bono areas, while Dombo represents Northern Region. The Dombos are always in the mix and fit as running mates to either a Danquah candidate or a Busia candidate. That tradition must continue.”
However, the Hon. Fuseini said: “President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, had demonstrated beyond all reasonable doubt that he had the people of northern Ghana at heart and that “he has been in excellent connection with the northerners.”
Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana
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The acting District Chief Executive (DCE) of the Bawku West District, Victoria Ayamba, is reported to have unilaterally sacked an accredited Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) caterer and reallocated her contract to the wife of a former Member of Parliament (MP) for Zebilla, Grace Fuseini Adongo.
About 600 children went hungry for four days after she stormed the Yikurugu Primary School to throw out the caterer, Ramatu Yaro, from the public school and threatened that she would not be paid for her services even if she continued to feed the children.
The unilateral dismissal suffered by the caterer comes after the Office of the President had warned all acting local-government appointees to not take any decision “involving a policy issue” in a letter dated 11th January, 2021, and signed by the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare.
Besides, the GSFP’s national secretariat came up with a press statement last month in strong disapproval of attempts by some assemblies to recruit new GSFP caterers and it directed all caterers already at work to remain at their various posts.
But a few days after the GSFP had issued that cautionary statement, some unfamiliar faces emerged on the premises of the Yikurugu Primary School to prepare food for the schoolchildren whilst the familiar caterer, who had been feeding the pupils since 2018, was busy at the school’s kitchen. Authorities at the school told the strangers they were unaware of their engagement and turned them away.
The following morning, the strangers returned to the school with five men described as “thugs”. The alleged thugs threw water on a fire the accredited caterer had set to prepare a meal for the schoolchildren and scattered the kitchen utensils being used. Whilst those men were warning the caterer to stop cooking and to stay away from the school’s grounds thenceforth, the school’s authorities got involved again.
This time, the authorities at the school told the ‘intruders’ to provide a document to show that the government had appointed them to feed the school. They could not provide the requested document. But they told the school that they had been sent by “the wife of the former MP” to take over from Ramatu Yaro. As the authorities stood their ground against their mission, they left and the troubled caterer resumed cooking.
Acting DCE descends on school premises with six police officers
The same people returned a third time with two more strongmen in their company. They were met on arrival by some men who had been informed about the caterer’s troubles and had readied themselves to defend her.
A serious scuffle erupted. Teaching and learning came to an abrupt halt. The schoolchildren watched with fright from a distance presumed to be relatively safe. Outnumbered and outdone, the ‘trespassers’ retreated to the perimeter of the main highway that leads from Bolgatanga to Bawku for a brief discussion and then left the area.
About thirty minutes later, the acting DCE showed up at the school with the Bawku West District Police Commander and six other police officers. Whilst briefing the police about the GSFP-related conflict at the basic school, the school’s authorities cited Ramatu Yaro as the only caterer known to the school and supported their claims by providing a logbook that showed records of the services she had rendered to the school since 2018.
The “accredited caterer” renewed her health certificate at the Bawku West District Assembly in January, 2021, only to be sacked a month later.
But the stand-in DCE, according to a police source, interjected by saying that the catering contract actually belonged to Grace Fuseini Adongo, wife of the immediate-past MP for Zebilla, Frank Fuseini Adongo. The caretaker DCE is quoted to have stated further that Ramatu was made to front the contract for Grace and that the contract documents also were made to bear her name (Ramatu Yaro) as the caterer in a bid to protect Grace from exposure to possible conflict-of-interest issues considering her status as a wife to a policymaker.
Accredited caterer dismissed by acting DCE shares experience
That meeting ended with the “government-recognised” caterer being told by the provisional DCE to stop cooking with an open threat that she would not receive any payment from government for any subsequent services if she ignored her order.
The acting DCE was also caught on tape telling the accredited caterer that “Ghana School Feeding Programme at the national level says when you finish cooking today, you should stop cooking.”
The caterer obliged and the underprivileged schoolchildren, in whose interest the policy was generally introduced in the country against hunger as well as malnutrition and extreme poverty, had nothing to eat for four days at the school.
Subsequently, the transitional DCE forwarded two names to the school (Akoloba Akulsum and Afaneg Apasiba) as its new cooks and announced Grace Fuseini Adongo as its caterer. She also instructed that the cooks should start cooking from Tuesday February 2, 2021.
The ousted caterer, now distressed, told Starr News that the former MP for the area secured the contract for her family and, after she returned from a training programme organised for caterers recruited by the GSFP, the former MP’s wife (Grace Fuseini Adongo) imposed herself on her as the person to supply at all times any foodstuff to be prepared for the school. She said she did not like the arrangement but had to comply as it was evident that Grace was taking advantage of her as a beneficiary of her husband’s efforts.
“I was given only 300 Ghana cedis a month since 2018”— Evicted caterer
The evicted caterer said the contract document bore her name (Ramatu Yaro) but Grace had managed to take it away from her by asking for it some time ago on the pretext of taking it home to read.
The only material yet to be taken from her, she says, is the e-zwich account card which also bears her name and through which payments for services rendered are made.
“Since I started cooking for the school in 2018, whenever government pays into my e-zwich account at the end of the month, I would go and withdraw a very huge sum of money and hand it over to the former MP’s wife and she would give me only Gh¢300 at the end of the month since 2018.
“The men who came to attack me at the school told me, ‘You will see’. These men collaborate with some thugs in the constituency. Those issuing the threats are loyal to the former MP. The DCE stood in front of me and said they would change the details on my e-zwich card. Now, they are asking me to surrender my e-zwich card and my voter ID card. I feel cheated. I feel threatened,” Ramatu told Starr News.
When contacted for her side of the story, Grace Fuseini Adongo deferred her response in a Starr News interview, saying “I will call you back”, but she never did. Calls placed to the interim DCE initially went unanswered. But she responded upon another attempt to reach her about twenty-four hours later, saying that the former MP’s wife was the rightful caterer for the school.
“That school belongs to the MP’s wife. That school belongs to someone called Grace Adongo since 2018. It was Grace Adongo who introduced the caterer but because the husband [was] an MP, she didn’t want to use her own name on the e-zwich [account]. I did not sack any caterer,” the acting DCE told Starr News.
starrfm
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Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, says the Bawku Municipality in the Upper East Region is of great interest to government and commended residents for the peace in the area.
“I wish to assure you that the government will not be derailed by any means of giving what is due to the good people of Bawku Traditional Area.
You are going to witness a lot of infrastructural projects such as health and educational facilities, good roads, warehouses to make this traditional area assume its rightful place,” he said.
The Vice President said this in a speech read on his behalf by Mr Frank Fuseini Adongo, the Upper East Deputy Regional Minister, at the 33rd annual Samanpiid festival of the chiefs and people of the Bawku Traditional Area.
This year’s festival on the theme: “Mutual understanding, and co-existence; A key to enhancing peace for the development of Kusaug,” brought together citizens of the Kusaug area, including some Chiefs across the Region.
Dr Bawumia said, “In the face of the communal disturbances that existed, the people of Bawku have demonstrated patriotism over the years through support for various governments and their programmes, and I salute you all.”
He said it was gratifying to note that Bawku had returned to its normal state, and the people were going about their daily activities in peace and harmony.
“This gives the government a great sigh of relief as it rolls out policies and programmes to bring smiles on the faces of our people.”
He said, “Those who were born a little over four decades ago will attest to the fact that there was no town in the north that could surpass Bawku in terms of the ingenuity of the people, the type of brisk business and the ever-growing nature of the town.”
Dr Bawumia noted that Bawku nearly became a shadow of itself, “Our children’s education was indeed nearly jeopardized as teachers and other workers preferred to work in other places aside Bawku.”
He congratulated the people of the area, especially the Inter-Ethnic Peace Committee for their efforts so far at ensuring lasting peace, and urged them not to relent.
Giving a brief history of Samanpiid, the Paramount Chief of the Bawku Traditional Area, Zug-Raan Naba Asigri Abugrago Azoka II, said the festival was established by their ancestors to celebrate successful farming seasons.
“This was done originally at various Kusasi clans in Kusaug. There were lots of merry-making, including dancing and feasting as part of the ceremonies.”
He said they had modernised the celebrations by making it more centralized.
“This occasion is used to inform civil authorities or government of our development needs and priorities and we also plan to execute projects of our own.”
The Paramount Chief advised the Chiefs and people of the area to continue to abide by the COVID-19 protocols.
GNA
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The Constituency Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Bawku West District of the Upper East Region Patrick Ayaaba has responded to the accusation and blame game of he been the architect of causing the defeat of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Zebilla Constituency.
Mr. Ayaaba who spoke to Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen of Apexnewsgh.com said he played his role professionally as a Constituency chairman but, unfortunately couldn’t receive any good cooperation especially from the Member of Parliament (MP) and District Chief Executive (DCE).
According to him, the problem in the constituency between the MP, DCE and the party members wasn’t a hidden thing in the constituency hence, he made effort to resolve it on time before the 2020 elections, but unfortunately no attention was given to him for redress.
He said, with his effort and efforts of some other party members, they were able to convince some NDC members in 2016 to win the Zebilla seat. But unfortunately, in the 2020 elections the people they convinced were feed up with the performance of the MP and DCE, which makes it difficult for the NPP to win the seat even though Zebilla is known as NDC stronghold.
However, Mr. Ayaaba said the MP and DCE must take the blame for the abysmal performance the constituency witnessed in the just ended December 7, 2020 general elections.
“In 2016, due to the hardworking of some us, we were able to convince some NDC people to join us plenty, and many of them joined us and we had the seat. But it seems their expectations was not met for a period and during that period all, we have been giving letters to the Regional and National telling them that if care is not taken, something of this sort will happen but it seems they did not pay attention to it and that is why it has caused us. I even have a report i wrote to them, in the report, I was saying that the behavior of the MP and the DCE is on called for and if they don’t come and put them to order, some of this sort maybe caused and even in some level, the Regional Chairman had to reply by saying what am saying is not true. So, I kept quiet.” He stressed
“You know this our Northern Region everything we want consultation. Sympathizing of funerals, developmental issues, even if you want to pick somebody, you had to consult to know that we are all in agreement because resources are limited to supply. But it looks as if some were sidelined so I think that is the problem. When they don’t get, they create a problem and when they come and it is not well managed then other will feel offended, they are the cause. Even some polling station executive were of the view that they will sit down and somebody who did not support the party will bypass them and go and get some position. Even organizing polling station meetings was a problem. I have to stop campaign and call them to plead on them to come down. In 2016, some of them were even selling their guineafowl for the party. There is a lot to come and here, I want the MP to be sitting down and DCE to be sitting and I will be sitting down will be talking and see whether they can answer, is not a hidden thing. The place is an NDC area not an NPP area so you don’t boast. So, if somebody is not happy the way you distribute resources, you only need to call him and plead on him, but he will say let’s ignore him. Before the primaries, some people were having this thing that the MP has lost grounds so they have to change. So, they didn’t support him during the this thing. But when he won, his boys were going round saying money stop nonsense, and that comment alone have caused us a mess. You have won, why do you use that language again? I am not hiding anything, I want the authorities to come and we talk to each other and even what the Regional Chairman did, the letter he wrote to me is still with me. My report is still there, I served report even up to Chief of Staff office, only to make sure they will come and see to it that we correct things before it is spoiled. Meanwhile you have to listen to the people on the ground.”
“Sympathizing of funeral was a problem, we didn’t even have money and the MP have never even given 1000 into our party account to be able to sympathize funerals…nothing, we don’t have any record of MP given us 1000. Nobody should put the blame on anybody, let’s put the blame on the MP and the DCE that is all.” He lamented
“The DCE too, you know we were all contesting for the DCE’s position, so after that anyone who come to her, she will respond that you, you weren’t supporting me why do you come here? She has used all those languages on people and the people are there to justify right now. This is what has actually mess to the party in the constituency. I don’t think we need to blame anybody apart from the two of them and the authorities. The authorities also didn’t listen to us.” He told Apexnewsgh.com
Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana/Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen
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