By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has condemned a comment made by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, that he intentionally neglected development in the Ekumfi constituency.
According to the NDC, it deems the President’s comments “unpresidential” and indicative of what the opposition party described as the “vindictive” nature of Mr. Akufo Addo.
Speaking on Accra-based Citi FM, the Deputy Secretary of the NDC, Mr. Mustapha Gbande, underscored the inappropriateness of President Akufo-Addo’s approach, particularly in addressing the family of a late former president.
“It seems that if the president was speaking to somebody like me, it would have been acceptable, but the president, being the President of the Republic of Ghana, was speaking to the family, direct family members of a late former president, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills. So, to have made such comments, for us, is unpresidential.
It just reflects the nature of the president we have, who is so vindictive and believes that he prioritises politics over development. That is why his government is failing,” Mr. Gbande reiterated this on Wednesday, January 17, 2024.
In a video that went viral on social media, President Akufo-Addo was heard saying his government deliberately overlooked development in Ekumfi because the residents voted his party’s parliamentary candidate, Mr. Francis Ato Cudjoe, out of Parliament in the 2020 elections.
The President expressed dissatisfaction with the voting pattern in Ekumfi during an interaction with traditional leaders from the Constituency at the Jubilee House.
President Akufo-Addo said that despite appointing Ato Cudjoe as Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture to bring development to the area, the constituents voted him out, which he was not pleased with.
“Ato Cudjoe was your MP, and I made him a Deputy Minister, and you voted him out in the last elections, and because of that, I did not pay attention to development in your area. I have to be honest with you, but since you have brought it up, I will pay attention to it,” the President said.
