DCE denies punishing residents for voting against NDC

Mr De-graft Forkuo, the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Asante-Akim South, says it is untrue that construction works on the Asankare-Dampong-Kwabeng road had been stopped to punish people in the area for voting against the ruling party in the last general elections.

The claim, he said, is a “horrible gossip”, has no basis of fact and must therefore be ignored.

Some residents in communities served by the road have been calling into radio programmes to express anger and frustration over the delay of the project, pointing fingers at the DCE and accusing him of engaging in a game of political vendetta.

Mr Fokuo told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that he found it hard to understand the desperate attempt “to discredit and make me look bad”.

The road has been selected for construction under the COCOBOD-funded cocoa roads project and awarded to four different contractors in 2012 who subsequently moved to site.

According to the DCE, all but one of the contractors, AMENDS Enterprise chose to stay on to continue with the phase two of the project, on completion of the first phase.

He said every effort was being made to get them back to work and that he was in constant touch with the Feeder Roads Department to move things.

Alhaji Amadu Adamu, Managing Director of ADMENDS Enterprise, said the combined factors of funding and heavy rains were affecting the project’s smooth implementation.

He absolved the DCE from blame, saying, he had no hand in the award of the contract and could therefore not terminate it.