With barely five months to the general election, residents of Agogooso community near Dompoase in the Fomena Constituency of the Ashanti Region have warned that they will vote against the ruling party if it fails to attend to their infrastructural needs in the next two weeks.
The Agogooso community is known to be a stronghold of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) with the party securing over 95% votes cast in the 2020 general elections.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, June 23, Gideon Ababio, spokesperson for the agitated members of the community, said they were disappointed in the Member of Parliament(MP) for Fomena Constituency, Andrew Amoako Asiamah, who doubled as the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, the Ashanti Region Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, and the District Chief Executive, Eric Kusi, for neglecting and depriving the community of infrastructural development.
Throwing more light on their concerns, the agitated members of the community who were clad in red and black cloth said since the government took over power in 2017, the only project they can boast of is a 10-seater toilet facility which has been abandoned .
He said efforts to get authorities to complete the project has proven futile resulting in people defecating indiscriminately with its attendant health challenges.
Mr. Ababio further stated that the existing classroom blocks in the basic school in the community is in deplorable state which cannot also accommodate the ever increasing population of the school.
He said the community started 2-unit KG block with washrooms which was at the lintel level in 2019, but has been halted due to lack of funds.
“We sought support from our MP, Rt. Hon. Andrew Amoako Asiamah in November, 2020 of which he promised to complete the project, but has failed to honour his promise.But through the efforts of the Assembly member and Nananom, the project is about 98% complete,” he said.
Still on education, the spokesperson said since the school has no ICT center or computers making it impossible for students to learn and acquire knowledge on ICT.
He also touched on the absence of teachers’ bungalow which forces teachers to travel about 14km to come to work in the community.
This he said does not bode well for teaching and learning since most of the teachers come to school late as a result of the poor state of the road linking the community. Some of the teachers do not report to work when it rains.
On health care delivery, he said due to the absence of health facility in the community, accessing quality healthcare has become very difficult emphasizing that pregnant women have to be transported to long distances to seek proper health care. He called on authorities to put up a CHPS compound for them to alleviate their plight.
Corroborating their concerns, Chief of Agoogoso Nana Asamoah Berko I, who received the petition for onward transmission to authorities, said the challenges of the community are enormous despite their support to the ruling government over the years.
He said the community has a poor mobile network connectivity making it difficult for them to make calls and access data services.
“Teachers who are newly posted refuse to come due to bad network. Our MP, Rt. Hon. Amoako Asiamah came for a tour in Dec. 2023 of which he promised again to install a network pole within a week, but has reneged on his promises.”
He said the actions of the Member of Parliament affirm that he has indeed neglected them.
He, however, appealed to the President, Nana Akufo-Addo, Telcos and philanthropists to come to their aid.
Nana Asamoah Berko I cautioned that the ruling government risks losing their votes if urgent efforts are not made to complete the abandon toilet, renovate the school blocks within a couple of weeks, instal a Network pole ( mast), construct CHPS compound, Ultramodern ICT lab and teachers bungalow before the 7th December presidential and Parliamentary elections.
He again said failure to receive a good response within two weeks will yield series of peaceful demonstrations from the community.
Source:onuaonline.com