Former Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Madam Catherine Afeku’s woes have been aggravated by a group called Axim Youth for Development (AYD). The group has rubbished her recent moves of trying to use the media to cover up the rots she allegedly perpetuated, which is said to have dragged the image of entire community into ridicule.
The youth group is daring her to answer a ten point query surrounding the Axim Kundum Celebration saga as her failure to do so will suggest that she is not fit to cast any spell on the Nkosuohene of Lower Axim Nana Osei Nkwantabisa who first challenged her claims.
In a press statement signed by its president, Ishmeal Ainoo on Sunday afternoon, the Axim Youth for Development challenged Catherine Afeku to also immediately organize a demonstration against the Paramount Chief of Nsein Awulea Agyefi Kwame II for also daring her over the Auditor General’s report where he distanced himself as witness to the 200k Kundum cash which she claimed to have expended.
Below is the full statement:
AXIM YOUTH FOR DEVELOPMENT (AYFD)
IGNORE DISHONEST CATHERINE AFEKU AND HER SELF-SPONSORED NPP LED COMATOSE AND ILL-INFORMED YOUTH WING PRESSER- AS NANA NKWANTABISA WILL MAKE NO APOLOGY FOR ANY WRONG-DOING.
On Thursday, August 26, 2021, a fictitious group calling itself ‘Concerned Youth of Axim,’ whose frontline bearers are known NPP members and who are sponsored by the worst culprit in the 2018 Auditor General’s report ‘chop chop’ saga, Madam Catherine Afeku held a press conference at Axim Victoria Park primarily to attack the persona of Nana Osei Nkwantabisa, Nkosuohene of Lower Axim Traditional Area and Chairman of the Axim Kundum Planning Committee, for his exceptional and high level of integrity in exposing Madam Afeku’s dishonesty.
According to the mushroom group, the revered chief has tarnished the image of Madam Catherine Afeku, the former demoted Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture and defeated Member of Parliament for our dear Evalue Ajomoro Gwira Constituency during the 2020 Parliamentary Polls, for speaking the truth after the latter went about misleading and lying her way out over the Auditor General report.
It should be established that the leader of the disgruntled and hungry-gullible NPP wing who read the statement in the person of one Theophilus Musah; a.k.a T-Brown and known notorious mercenary who is an expert in the strategic planning and organization of demonstrations and press conferences to defame and attack noble personalities in the constituency, and a typical example was his infamous similar agenda which sought to tarnish Prof. Sagari Kaku Nokoe’s hard-won reputation when the Nsein Paramount chief recommended him for the position for the CEO of the Ghana Gas, and was also sponsored by the same Catherine Afeku who was opposed to his appointment.
According to their statement, Nana Nkwantabisa peddled falsehood against Madam Afeku, claiming that the report never cited Axim and that the money meant for the Marine Drive Project by the Government of Ghana was instead spent on musicians who came to perform during the 2018 Axim Kundum and must come to apologize for speaking the truth while their ‘Madam’ is going about her business.
We also ask the following unanswered questions that Madam Afeku’s sponsored group who held the press conference on Thursday, August 26, 2021 failed to deny or confirm, and we will like to catalog for their attention and comment in other to clear them before Nana Nkwantabisa comes out to apologize.
1. We ask again, why have they never attacked the person of Awulae Agyefi Kwame II, the paramount chief of the Nsein Traditional Area, whose jurisdiction was mentioned and who had to come out to disassociate himself from witnessing any expenses as claimed by madam Afeku and even denied receiving any cash donation from her?
Is Catherine Afeku and her odious compendium of failed surrogates afraid of the Nsein Paramount Chief who, like the young and intelligent chief Nana Nkwantabisa, has come out boldly to expose her rot and lies?
2. Madam Afeku confirmed that the GH 200,000 cash had been refunded in her Citi Fm eyewitness interview on Friday 20, August 2021, but on Peace Fm Entertainment Review show on Saturday 21 August, 2021 twisted the matter by saying that the GH 200,000 which had already been expended can never been refunded or paid, saying it in twi that “Sika No Ashi”; so we ask which of her claims should Ghanaians believe? It is the Peace Fm’s interview that she says the money is gone forever and thus can’t be refunded or the Citi Fm interview which says the money has been refunded?
3. Is it true that the 1-9 September 2018 period captured by the Auditor General’s Report was not the period of the Axim Kundum event, despite the fact that the report did not mention Axim?
And why is it that Madam Afeku and her mercenaries are always trying to avoid the truth?
They should come out and disprove the Auditor General’s dates, and if they can’t, they should shut up!
4. How was the Nkroful Kundum organized, and which dates were chosen, and when was the last time she attended and graced their Kundum festival? since according to sources, the Chief of Nkroful Nana Kwasi Kutuah IV refuted her claim that she supported the Nkroful Kundum that year and added that she never honored their invitation for them during her tenure as a minister or even during her first term as an MP.
5. We also ask how much was accrued from the numerous invitations she sent out to companies, individuals, missions/embassies in both 2018 and 2019 using the official letterhead of the Axim Kundum Planning Committee without accounting to the planning committee, and we call on the Kundum Planning Committee to come clean on her failure to render accounts and what the monies received through the planning committee’s letterhead used for?
6. Madam Afeku should come out and explain and give reasons why she, in collaboration with the current MCE Frank Okponye, attempted to mortgage the Axim Kundum to a South African-based NPP man who went about soliciting funds of close to half a million dollars ($500,000) from Aker Energy in 2019 without the attention and express permission of Awulae Attibrukusu III and the Planning Committee?
This was written on the letterhead of the Nzema East Municipal Assembly and referred to Catherine Afeku as the instigator of the planned booty to the detriment of the entire Axim people.
7. We are asking Madam Afeku to let the general public know the social benefits of the GH 200,000 cash expenses on the people of Axim. Why could she not use part of such money she collected to help complete the Axim Government Hospital theater block when the Planning and Organizing Committee was going about galvanizing funding to complete that important social facility, which was brought down by the chiefs and has been renovated since 2017? To our surprise, the intelligence we gathered indicated the planning committee’s appeal through Nana Edusei, Vice Chairman of the Committee to support the theater project with 100 bags of cements in 2018 also proved futile.
8. We ask Madam Afeku, what was her aftermath support towards Kundum festival celebration to the planning committee since taking office as a minister and MP in 2017 to aid in the completion of the theater block that she seeks to paint for her movie shoot?
9. We wonder why Madam Afeku is always caught in the web of financial malfeasance, from her heydays to the grace period and later to her down to zero times. We all know she has once been found guilty of fraud by a court of competent jurisdiction and was recently cited at the Ministry for malfeasance, which resulted in her demotion from a cabinet minister to non-portfolio minister until her dismissal.
10. We ask her how much of the Axim hospital’s base rate charges is the Hollywood and Ghanaian film producers paying for occupying the facility for nearly three months. People want to know how much money will be allocated for compensation, utilities such as water, electricity, and power, and even the general discomforts that the film crew will bring to the hospital.
We also give Madam Afeku forty-eight hours to respond to the aforementioned questions, and if her answers sound convincing, we the youth of Axim will allow him (Nana Nkwantabisa) to apologise; until then, he will not apologise to such a dishonest and opportunistic figure as post conscious Afeku, who had no shame but to defend her crock and smarty but unintelligent acts of always indulging in financial malfeasance.
Awulae Attibrukusu III, Paramount Chief of Lower Axim Traditional Area, must come out respectfully and immediately to clear the air, as his compatriot Awulae Agyefi Kwame II, Paramount Chief of Nsein Traditional Area, did on Wednesday, August 25, 2021, distancing himself and his paramountcy from being a witness to Madam Afeku’s rot scare.
The call for Awulae Attibrukusu’s statement must be timely and swift in order to put an end to the already tainted or soiled bad image against the chiefs and people of Axim, and we believe his delay in speaking will confirm and let people conclude on the rumors we have already gathered on the grounds that Madam Afeku, her husband Mr. Seth Afeku, and some key NPP stalwarts have allegedly visited Awulae Attibrukusu at his Takoradi residence last Wednesday night mainly to plead with him not to speak on the matter since his statement will seek to discredit her hobbling reputation of Madam Afeku.
We would also like to urge and remind some of the chiefs whose comments sought to serve as a mark of betrayal to Nana Nkwantabisa to refrain from being used by Madam Afeku for her own selfish agenda and instead come together as one family to herald Axim’s developmental agenda. We are also aware that some chiefs and queen mothers who sit on black stool are well known card bearing members of the NPP and, so Nana Nkwantabisa who does not sit on a black stool being a known NDC is of no crime at all.
Thank you
END.
Long live Axim Manle
Long Live Axim Kundum
Long Live Evalue Ajomoro Gwira
ISHMAEL AINOO
PRESIDENT
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