Group Opposes Ashanti Minister-Designate

A GROUP calling itself the Ashanti Watch has kicked against President John Mahama’s appointment of Samuel Sarpong, Chief Executive of Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), to the position of Ashanti Regional Minister.

According to the group, the people in the region felt insulted by the new designation of the KMA boss as he could not be trusted for the job after failing abysmally to live up to expectation as a mayor of the city.

At a press conference in Kumasi, the president of the group, Andrew Akwasi Adjapong, alleged that things were falling apart, and therefore the region needed competent and honest persons to steer affairs.

The group said the sanitation situation in the metropolis had grown from bad to worse within the reign of Mr. Sarpong as KMA boss, aside awarding contracts on the blind side of Assembly members.

In the view of the Ashanti Watch, these made him unfit for the job of a Regional Minister because Mr. Sarpong abused the trust of the people by failing to honour his promise to renovate the Kumasi Central Market.

Mr. Adjapong said the KMA Chief Executive on many occasions failed to go through due process for the awards of contract of some projects being undertaken in the metropolis.

He mentioned the construction of stores at Yaa Akyaa Girls School at Bompata, LLL at Asokwa, Asafo Neoplan and the construction of a story building at Adehyeman.

Another area of concern to the group was the impending decongestion exercise, which it considered to be an avenue used to siphon money from the coffers of the KMA.

“We are asking His Excellency, the President to withdraw the appointment of Mr. Sarpong as the Ashanti Regional Minister. His tenure at KMA is seen as wasted years,” the Ashanti Watch President underpinned.