Evans Dapaah
Contrary to reservations about the votes garnered in favour of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Oti Region, the Regional Chairman of the party has stressed that “come what may, Oti is still on course to becoming an NPP stronghold.”
Mr. Evans Dapaah further noted that although the votes from the region was not enough to secure parliamentary seats it appreciated greatly to ensure President Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP got retained in office.
To this end he has cautioned against comments and decisions that may undermine the work and systems put in place to ensure the region abandons the NDC and joins the NPP into a progressive future.
Mr. Dapaah made the observation at Nkwanta in the Nkwanta South Constituency of the Oti region when he interacted with journalists on the party’s performance in the just ended presidential and parliamentary elections.
He explained that a trend analysis shows that the presidential votes for the party in the Oti region increased from about 74,275 votes representing about 34 percent in 2016 to 103,865 representing about 36 percent in 2020.
Apart from that, the gap between the NPP parliamentary candidates and the opposition NDC has been closed greatly as compared to previous years. “A sign that we are at the crossroads of making Oti and NPP stronghold”, he noted.
He said “even in Krachi East where we lost our only seat, you could see that it was a very close contest considering the fact that the area like all other constituencies in the region is an NDC stronghold; which we are claiming.”
Mr. Michael Gyato won the Krachi East seat in 2016 with 14,551 votes against the NDC candidate’s 14,504; thus a difference of 47 votes. However, despite increasing his votes to 19,837, he lost to the NDC candidate who garnered 20,364, thus a difference of about 527 votes.
In Krachi West, the NPP parliamentary candidate, Justice Amankwah Mensah aka “Jam 1” closed a gap of over 4000 votes in 2016 by garnering 11,572 votes against 12,068 from the NDC’s Helen Ntosu in the just ended 2020 election, thus a difference of 496.
In Nkwanta North, a difference of about 10,000 votes in 2016 was eroded to about 1000 in the 2020 elections when Benjamin Mnyun Nador of the NPP secured 22,869 votes against the NDC’s 24,478 by incumbent John Oti Bless.
Mr. Dapaah added that the same situation can be said about the NPP’s Innocent Tache Kakateche who contested in Krachi Nchumuru. “It is clear that these four seats are ripe to be taken by us (NPP) and increasing the momentum of our campaign will bring us great benefits from 2024 and beyond.”
He explained that the creation of the Oti region has been a blessing for the party as the area which is largely underdeveloped with many hard to reach areas suffered to get resources when they were under the old Volta region. He acknowledged that the increase in the party’s parliamentary and presidential votes is testament to increased resources when compared to previous years.
To this end, “no one should think that the region underperformed but rather see the prospects of having another NPP stronghold from 2024 and beyond and invest heavily in the Oti enclave”, Mr. Dapaah reiterated. He added that the investment must be equitably shared among the soon to be nine constituencies to ensure a holistic takeover.
From Fred Duodu, Nkwanta (k.duodu@yahoo.com)