Atwima Nwabiagya MCE Impasse Lingers

Michael Amoah Awuku

The tension in the Atwima Nwabiagya South in the Ashanti Region is not subsiding after some constituency executives revealed they were allegedly compelled to sign a petition endorsing the retention of Michael Amoah Awuku as the Municipal Chief Executive.

Residents last week demonstrated against the party’s constituency and regional executives who were said to be working behind the scenes to get the MCE retained, and it compelled the residents to hit the streets in protest.

According to the residents, the MCE did not advance the development of the area as expected and must not be given the chance to serve again.

According to the agitators, mostly members of the NPP, the actions and inactions of the MCE and some powerful NPP gurus in the constituency accounted for the 13,000 votes loss by the party’s parliamentary candidate who obtained 47,000 as against 59, 000 for President Akufo-Addo in the 2020 polls.

They said they wanted a more “competent”
person to take over as MCE and not the current one since they claimed his retention would further make the NPP unpopular in the area.

According to them, during the protest, armed police and military personnel were unleashed on them even though they claimed they were peaceful.

In the ensuing heat, some executives revealed that they were compelled to sign a petition to the President through the Regional Minister to get the MCE retained.

The petition to the President had said, “The entire New Patriotic Party Executive body of the Atwima Nwabiagya South Constituency wish to recommend to the President to reappoint Michael Amoah Awuku as the Municipal Chief Executive of the Atwima Nwabiagya Municipal Assembly.”

The executives who do not want to be named claimed that they only endorsed a second term for the MCE in the two-page petition which chronicled his attributes under duress.

The residents are insisting that the MCE’s abysmal performance in the last four years is the reason the Atwima Nwabiagya South area, in particular, is lagging behind in development and will continue to protest until the MCE is change.

The MCE has not commented on the allegations being leveled against him.