Mahama didn’t build Abirem market, chief lied - Group

A group calling itself Concerned Youth of Abirem in the Eastern Region has refuted a claim made by the chief of the area that President John Mahama built the Abirem market.

In a press statement signed by its president Samuel Osei Gyasi, the group expressed its “displeasure and total disappointment in our chief for making such untrue and fictional remarks about the Kufuor-led administration in relation to the newly commissioned Abirem market”.

According to the group, the chief of Abirem Traditional Area, Obrempong Nana Akwasi Amoh Kyeretwie stated during a visit of President Mahama that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the Kufuor government abandoned the market project when they came into office.

The group explained that the project was started by ex-president Jerry John Rawlings and was completed in 2006 under ex-president John Agyekum Kufuor.

“The market, after completion in 2006, was left in a dilapidated state, this is because there was a battle between the assembly and the traders in relocating the market folk from the old market to the new edifice. Upon several moves by the assembly to relocate the market got rendered futile, the new market was left in a deplorable condition till the NPP lost power in 2008,” the statement clarified.

The group said the chief narrated how President Mahama responded kindly to a request from the community to complete the project. “We the youth want to make it clear to the general public that the above remarks by the chief is a mere hallucination, contains 100% false statements and we are very disappointed in our chief on that note.”

According to the group, “the NDC and the Mahama-led administration just made some renovations and patches to the structures” and inaugurated it, “so, why then is our chief claiming the president built the market? We are very sure our chiefs, opinion leaders, religious leaders, old workers of the assembly, stakeholders and all constituents of Abirem are aware of the massive and visible projects undertaken by the NPP and the Kufuor-led administration in the Abirem area, so, it's quite flabbergasting for our chief to utter such palpable untrue statements during the President's visit”.