Frederick Opare-Ansah
Member of Parliament (MP) for Suhum in the Eastern Region, Frederick Opare-Ansah, has debunked social media report that he has insulted and described the residents of Okorase as “villagers “.
According to him, it is very disheartening that persons claiming to be literates would spew out such falsehood.
He made this response in a reaction to a statement trending on social media by some NPP youth activists who are calling on him to render an unqualified apology to residents of Suhum – Okorase for allegedly describing them as “villagers”.
The party youth activists who are pushing for the “Suhum Need Change” agenda noted that since Opare-Ansah became the MP in 2004, his performance in terms of development in the constituency is nothing to write home about. Therefore, they are advising the delegates to vote against him in the next party primaries to pave way for another candidate to lead the party to the 2020 election.
In a press statement, the group disclosed that during an electoral tour, Opare-Ansah nearly caused a ‘political disaster’ when he was asked to retract a statement he had earlier made that electorate of Okorase are “villagers”.
According to the statement, the delegates of Okorase electoral area got angry with the MP when they asked him to retract the ‘insult’ and render an unqualified apology to the delegates and residents of Okorase and he refused during a meeting. The meeting is said to have nearly turned into blows.
According to the MP, issues raised at the said meeting bordered on things affecting their electoral area and not that of Okorase.
He disclosed: “One Agyei Emma who happens to be the chairman of Kofigya polling station is the one who relayed such false information to the delegates of Okorase . . .”
Opare Ansah added that the polling station chairman of Okorase namely Cudjoe was also trying to tarnish his image to enable his brother, who will be contesting him in the next primaries, gain an advantage over him.
He explained further that he threatened a law suit because the chairman of the polling station wanted to incite delegates and residents of Okorase against him through falsehood.
He said when the incident happened, the chiefs of Okorase summoned him and the branch polling station chairman before the residents of the area to address the issue.
After hearing from both, the chiefs realized that the branch chairman was guilty for making such false statements against him, and the chairman was asked to apologize to the community for making such reckless statements.
As regards his achievements, he explained that since he became an MP, his outfit had lobbied a lot of developmental projects for the constituency such as GetFund projects, water system for communities, electrification, construction of markets, provision of TLMs, provision of computers for schools, motorbikes for the education directorate, scholarship for students, beds and incubators for the Suhum Government Hospital, among others.
FROM Daniel Bampoe, Suhum