Aggrieved Traditional Officer Holders Have Warned Bibiani-Anhwiaso- Bekwai MP
The condemnation on the MP by the scores of the constituents followed his recent attacked he has meted to the Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai Municipal Assembly and government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, accusing the state of neglecting his constituency which situation has created disturbance and confusion in the area.
Freeman Koryekpor 
NEW PATRIOTIC Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai Constituency in the Western North Region, Mr Alfred Obeng-Boateng has incurred the wrath of some prominent traditional office holders including scores of the youths, opinion leaders, market folks, children of school going age and faith based organisational leaders in the various electoral areas within the constitueny.
The condemnation on the MP by the scores of the constituents followed his recent attacked he has meted to the Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai Municipal Assembly and government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, accusing the state of neglecting his constituency which situation has created disturbance and confusion in the area.
The NPP legislator announced that he will be leading a demonstration in his constituency against the local Municipal Assembly for its failure to carry out the core duty of ensuring the availability of basic social amenities.
The MP disclosed his planned demonstration when he addressed a press conference organised in his constituency on Saturday 7 January 2023.
The Bibiani-Anhwiaso Bekwai law-maker in his address indicated that he is inviting all his constituents to clad themselves in red clothes and arm-bands for the demonstration on Monday 9 January 2023 but the leadership of the NPP has stopped Mr Obeng-Boateng after he was invited to come to the NPP national headquarters in Accra.
In explaining the rationale behind his call for a demonstration against the Municipal Assembly in his constituency, Mr Obeng-Boateng said he has had to personally construct about five public toilets in the constituency because they are a basic necessity in the municipality.
He lamented that the work that should traditionally be that of the Municipal Assembly, has sadly become the responsibility of the sitting Member of Parliament.
“I invite all of you to come out and join me. All you need is a red arm-band on one arm or both arms. If you have red clothes, wear it and if you don’t have one, wear any other colour.
“If for two years, 2021 and 2022, since we came into office, we cannot point to a single project that the municipality has done for the community except those I have used my personal finances to do, then we have a legitimate reason to demonstrate.
“I have invested 19 billion old Ghana cedis in the constituency but all I get is deliberate sabotage from elements in the constituency through false claims in recorded audio files which are circulated in the municipality.
“If I do not have this constituency at heart, do you think I will invest these huge sums of money in it. Everyone who is 18 years and above is invited to join the demonstration, old ladies are invited,” the NPP legislator added.
The Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai law-maker in his statement to the press also indicated that the seat of Ghana’s presidency, the Jubilee House, needs to be made aware of the real situation on the ground in the Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai municipality and he believes that can be achieved through the proposed demonstration.
“We want to send a strong message to the Jubilee House so they get to know the reality on the ground and to draw their attention to the fact that certain persons from the Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai Constituency who have access to them are deceiving them as far as the situation in the constituency is concerned,” Alfred Obeng-Boateng said.
But in a random investigations by Soireenews. com, the majority of residents living in the area described the actions of the MP as a wrong move just to create unnecessary confusion and tension in the area to tarnish the image of the officials of the Assembly.
They warned the MP to leave the Assembly and government alone, saying that the government through the Assembly has been working to bring the needed development to the area.
They dared the MP to publicly showcase some of the social and infrastructure intervention projects and the programmes he has so far lobbied for government to be done in the various communities within the constitueny since he represented the constituents in Parliament.
They described the actions of the MP as a face serving exercise to create an impression that he cares for the people in the area, saying that the records and envidence in the various communities within the constitueny clearly shows that the MP has failed to lobby government for development projects and programmes for the area.
They accused the MP for sleeping in his duties post as far as lobbying government for good road networks, education, health, security, welfare services, water and sanitation facility projects are concerned.
"Our sitting MP has failed to do his jobs to lobby government for bringing projects to our communities. Because it is responsibility of the MP to lobby government for projects and if the government agrees, they will bring the projects through the Municipal Assembly and get the projects executed.
"But we are accusing the MP that he has woefully failed to do so, and that he should stop attacking the integrity of government and assembly of the neglect of the people in Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai. He should rather take the blame," the traditional office holders stated.
They pointed out that they were disappointed in MP when they read the news report on the social media platforms currently that their MP has been ranked as one of the worst non-performing MPs, attaining very outrageous position of 217 in the MPs ranking table list in the surgery conducted in the year 2022.
They stressed that "We want the people in the whole country to know that what our MP is saying that the central government has neglected the Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai constituency, we, the chiefs and youths are not in support of him because it is very shameful and disgust that the current survey released about the performance of the MPs, our MP has been ranked 217, beating 58 MPs out of 275 MPs in the country.
"In the comparing of our MP to the late Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for the Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai Municipal Assembly, Mr. Alfred Amoah when he was alive, he was ranked as the second most performing MCE out of Two Hundred and Sixty-One (261) Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) in the Metropolitan, Municipal and District District Assemblies in Ghana.
"So why do the MP who has failed us would be disturbing the peace of the people in Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai constituency by way of lobbying for the government to appoint somebody in his camp as the new MCE for Bibiani-Anhwiaso- Municipal Assembly.
"Although we, the traditional office holders in the constitueny are in the need for the government to appoint the new MCE for the Assembly we are not in support our MP current actions to attack the intergrty of government and assembly.
'We would like to tell the government that whoever it has appointed, we, the traditional office holders would surely work with him. But we are praying that the government appoints us a good listening and submissive person to become our new MCE. But we are not in support of the move by the MP to lobby for the new MCE to be appointed from his camp," the chiefs angrily stressed.
"We are not in the support of the MCE because in arm of the government, the MCE is part of the executives, and you the MP, you are part of the legislature, so why you are lobbying the government to appoint somebody who would come from the camp of the MP, it means that they would connive to do what we don't expect to happen.
"They would surely be a connival against the state when the government appoints somebody from the camp of the MP. We are aware that our MP is seriously lobbying the government to appoint someone from his camp as the new MCE to score his political points.
"So if the government is making its independence appointment, we telling the MP to allow the government to do it. We are saying that as the MP of the area, you don't force the state appointment committee or authority to appoint your own person. So we, the traditional authorities in the area would ensure that we advise the government not to do so," the chiefs who spoke in condition of anonymity stressed.
However, several efforts made to get the MP respond to the story proved unsuccessfully.
This reporter in his attempts has also sent several messages via telephone calls to the MP but he refused to give side of the story.
