Assin North by-elections: NABCO trainees to hold demonstration on election day

Trainees of the Nation Builders Corps (NABCo) programme in the Assin North Constituency in the Central Region have threatened to hold a demonstration during the day of the by-elections in the constituency.

According to GHOne TV, the trainees have decided to embark on the demonstration because even though the programme has been discontinued the government has still not paid arrears owed them.

They are confident that the threat of holding the demonstration on the day of the by-election will force the government to pay the arrears owed them.

“NABCO trainees have announced a planned demonstration in Assin North to coincide with the upcoming by-election in demand of payment of outstanding allowances.

“According to the beneficiaries of the discontinued programme, all attempts to get the government to pay their arrears have gone unheeded,” parts of a tweet shared by GHOne TV on Thursday, June 1, 2023, read.

Background:

The government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 2017 introduced the NABCO programme to address the issue of graduate unemployment in the country.

The initiative was run under seven modules: Educate Ghana, Heal Ghana, Feed Ghana, Revenue Ghana, Digitize Ghana, Enterprise Ghana, and Civic Ghana.

However, the NABCO programme was brought to an end some three years after it was implemented.

The aftermath has seen hundreds of beneficiaries complain about the government owing them several months of arrears and failed attempts to receive payments.

Assin North by-election:

The Electoral Commission of Ghana announced a by-election for the Assin North Constituency, on June 27, 2023, following the declaration of the seat as vacant by the Parliament of Ghana.

Parliament declared the seat vacant after a seven-member panel of the Supreme Court of Ghana ordered the House to expunge the name of James Gyakye Quayson as a Member of Parliament.

Justice Jones Victor Dotse, Justice Nene Amegatcher, Justice Mariama Owusu, Gertrude Araba Torkornoo, Justice Prof. Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, Justice Yonny Kulendi and Justice Barbara Ackah-Yensu declared that Quayson was not qualified at the time he contested the election 2020 in the Michael Ankomah Nimfah vrs James Gyakye Quayson case.

IB/SARA