Minister Goes Wild

NII LARYEA Affotey Agbo, also called ‘Lion’, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kpone-Katamanso and Minister of State at the Presidency, yesterday threw all caution to the wind when he described the youth of Kpone as ‘useless human beings’, saying that their forced seizure of the community cemetery was ‘nonsensical.’

He made the statement during a confrontation he had with some irate youth of the area who accused him of doing nothing for the constituency.

“You are all nonsensical and useless beings. You can’t force me to spend two years solving all your problems,” he fumed, making mockery of President Mills’s call on politicians to refrain from using abusive and intemperate language.

After the outburst, and perhaps satisfied that he had poured out his heart to the group, the angry MP entered his V8 Land Cruiser and zoomed off.

Minister Affotey Agbo was at the cemetery to help the Tema Municipal Assembly (TMA) to address the youths’ agitation which prevented bereaved persons from burying their dead relatives at the cemetery last Saturday. The reason for their action, according to the youth, was that the TMA had encroached on their royal cemetery.

Several youth, mainly members of the Kpone Youth Coalition, last Saturday had, between 7:30am and 3:00pm, prevented persons who went to the Kpone cemetery to bury their dead relations from doing so, when they hijacked the graveyard.

The group, clad in red hand bands and head gears, blocked the entrance of the cemetery with a metal bar, logs and also burnt some tyres on the road, all in a bid to ensure that bereaved families did not have access to the cemetery.

They prevented about 17 families who had turned up at the cemetery to bury their loved ones from doing so.

The MP was clearly livid at the action of the youth as he ranted for several minutes, compelling the Tema Regional Police Commander, Augustine Gyenning and others who were present to plead with him to be calm.

Earlier, when DAILY GUIDE asked him why he used such harsh words at his own people, he said he was very conversant with the behaviour of his people, “Thus I equally had to be hard on them.”

He said the people had every reason to demand what was rightfully theirs. “But they did not have to first approach their concerns by attacking personalities and the Government that is only two years old in office.”

He alleged that a member of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) described him as a ‘do nothing’ MP just as he arrived at the cemetery.

Affotey Agbo arrived at the cemetery just when a fact-finding team, led by Nii Adjei Annang, former Mayor of Tema and a Member of the Council of State, was leaving the Kpone Cemetery after touring the site to have first-hand information on the youth’s vandalism at the cemetery.