Gwira youth want Nzema East MCE Frank Okpenyen sacked

A youth group known as the Gwira Youth Association (GYA) in the Nzema East Municipality of the Western Region are calling on the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to sack the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for the area, Mr. Frank Okpenyen.

The angry youth are unhappy about the conduct of the MCE whom they believe have exhibited gross disrespect to traditional authorities in the area.

In a press conference held at Bamiankor on Tuesday, April 27, 2021, the youth group indicated that the MCE has refused to perform to satisfaction since he was offered the opportunity to lead the assembly.

Apart from the Gwira Youth Association, some communicators of the New Patriotic Party have also accused the MCE of causing the defeat of the party in the 2020 general election in Evalue Jomoro Gwira the constituency.

They have also asked the President to terminate the appointment of Mr. Frank Okpenyen for another person to take over.

Mr. Frank Okpenyen was nominated and confirmed as the Municipal Chief Executive for Nzema East Municipality in 2017 after the 2016 general election.

He is currently seeking a re-appointment from President Akufo-Addo to lead the municipality for the next four years.

However, the Youth group disagrees with him.

According to Redford Asmah who is the spokesperson of the group revealed in the press conference that, the MCE in collaboration with the former Member of Parliament for the area, Catherine Ablema Afeku fired warning shots at the palace of the Chief of Bamiankor for no tangible reasons.

He also mentioned that the MCE has constantly directed the authority of the Paramount Chiefs of Nsein, Awulae Agyefi Kwame II, and Awulae Angamatu Gyan the Paramount Chief of Gwira.

“On the 9th of November 2019, the current MCE in the company of the former MP, Hon. Catherine Afeku visited our Traditional capital, Bamiankor, and stood before our palace, without any provocation fired several gunshots, scaring everybody, men and women had to run for their lives without knowing what has gone missing. This arrogance and disrespect to our traditional Authorities cannot be taken lightly by the Gwira people," he stressed.

Redford Asmah further stressed that the government of the New Patriotic Party has refused to appoint anyone from Gwira to serve as an MCE. They believe this is the ideal time for them to also serve.

“This time around, the Gwira Youth Association is calling on President Akufo-Addo to consider their enclave by nominating any person who is an NPP member to be the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Nzema East. Gwira is less represented at the Municipal Assembly. Out of the 25 electoral areas in Nzema East Municipal, Evalue area has fourteen {14}, Ajomoro area has three {3} and Gwira area which has the larger population has only (8) eight. Besides this, none of our sons and daughters has ever been appointed as the Municipal Chief Executive to represent the Municipal", he explained.

The youth also bemoaned that lack of development in their area and indicated that “the Gwira enclave is considered as the rural part of Nzema East Municipal, yet it is surrounded by a host of developmental problems. Notable among them is the lack of tarred roads, poor educational infrastructure, no standard health facilities, poor sanitation, no toilet facility, and no developed marketplace for our women to sell, just to mention but few. Meanwhile, we remain the food basket of the municipality".

According to him, the entire municipality is lacking behind in development.

“The current Assembly rankings placed Nzema East Municipal at 215th position out of the 216 MMDAs", he added.

He, therefore, seized the opportunity to appeal to President Akufo-Addo to appoint either the current NPP Constituency Organizer, Eric Essien, or the NADMO Director, Mr. Anthony Amoah to be the next Municipal Chief Executive (MCE).

"Both the Traditional Authorities and the party executives wish to appeal to the President that, we have several members of our community who are strong and distinguished members of the New Patriotic Party that can be considered for an appointment. The likes of Mr. Eric Essien, the NPP Constituency Organizer for two terms, Mr. Isaac Nkrumah, an educationist, and a polling station chairman, Mr. Anthony Amoah, a former teacher and the current NADMO Director of Nzema East Municipal, etc," he pleaded.