... Threaten to vote against her in 2004
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Women’s Movement at Otojor, near Dansoman in Accra have expressed dissatisfaction over how their Member of Parliament, Ms Theresa Amerley Tagoe and the Assemblyman, Mr. Baffuor Agyemang have sidelined women in the area in the disbursement of the poverty alleviation funds.
The members of the movement have therefore sworn that, “Ms Tagoe’s day of shame” would occur during the next parliamentary elections when they will root against her.
According to information reaching The Chronicle, two years after the Otojor branch of the NPP women’s movement was established the movement had not received its share of the fund because the MP had allegedly neglected them.
The information stressed that during the 2000 election the MP convinced the women in the locality to assist her to campaign for both her (as MP) and the NPP.
The MP promised that if the NPP came to power they would form the Otojor branch of the Women Movement so that they would be given a loan to assist them to do business.
Based on this promise the women campaigned massively for the NPP hence their victory in that area.
After the elections when the women movement of Otojor was quickly formed, the MP through the leaders of the movement advised the members that they should register for the loan.
The information furthered stated that they were notified to pay minimum of ?5,000 and maximum fee of ?50,000 and that those who paid ?5,000 would receive ?700,000 and those who paid ?50,000 would also receive ?7,000,000.
The information also revealed that, four weeks ago when the women observed that the money had delayed so much they delegated two women to the Women’s Bank at Opera Square in Accra in order to find out the cause of the delay.
Upon reaching there they were informed by the management of the bank that some 10 women from Chorkor, a different locality have already withdrawn the money from the bank. The management of the bank also drew the attention of the delegation that the conditions of the loan was that until one pays her loan a different loan could not be given out again to another person.
The information said when the notice was delivered to the leaders of the movement, an emergency meeting was held at which Ms Tagoe was quizzed to identify the guarantors for the withdrawal of the money but no tangible answer was given.
When the women noticed that nothing fruitful was forth coming out of the movement they decided to approach the person who did the registration but to their utter dismay they were told that the person had fled abroad and that there was no record to indicate that any money had been paid.
However the information said most of the members of the movement hade quit.
When The Chronicle contacted Ms Tagoe, she said no one had gone for any money from the Women Bank”.
She said that rather the monies paid by the women were too small to regularize their accounts in the bank. She told The Chronicle, “Discard that information because it is not true; this would only bring confusion among the Otojor and Chorkor women’s movements.”
Ms Tagoe also denied that the person who did the registration has run away with the money.
However when the assemblyman for Mansralo electoral area, Mr. Agyemang, was contacted, he disclosed that one lady called Diana was assigned by Ms Tagoe to do the registration but had traveled.
He said they had been refused the loan because some other women had already gone for the money at the bank.
“I know them so I have told them to go and pay, if not the bank cannot give us our share,” he added.
He also denied that the women were from Chorkor but he could not identify where they really came from Mr. Agyemang said, “They come from my electoral area but they don’t come from Chorkor.”
As to how the women were able to obtain the money from the bank, he said he could not readily identify.
He denied that Ms Tagoe was the one who used her position to acquire the loan for the women. However, he said, “She can be involved as a guarantor of the loan.”
