Oti Chairman – Evans Dapaah
Contrary to claims that the government has abandoned the Oti region after losing the only seat it had in the 2020 elections, the Regional Chairman has assured that “the NPP government and the party will never abandon Oti region.”
Evans Dapaah in an interview with DGN Online noted that the government was committed to bringing more development to the Oti region just as it is doing in other parts of the country.
To this end, he urged residents and party members and sympathisers to disregard any such claims and instead give the government the needed support to deliver more development to the area.
He explained that “let no one be deceived, the NPP has proven beyond reasonable doubt that it has the Oti region at heart.”
It delivered on its promise to create a new region for the area created the Oti Regional House of Chiefs and commenced the construction of the Oti Coordinating Council and bungalows.
Under the NPP, rural electrification increased drastically. Many boreholes delivered to provide potable water to many communities that did not have good water sources. School feeding was increased to cover more schools.
Construction of Dambai town roads and Krachi town roads are also ongoing as well as the Oti portion of the Eastern corridor road which has seen considerable improvement under the NPP government, just to mention a few.
It is no wonder that the votes from the Oti region increased considerably in the last elections, although no seat was won. For instance, 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.
For a region that is still a stronghold of the opposition NDC, the party came close to securing four parliamentary seats; the first time since the fourth republic.
NPP’s Michael Gyato snatched the Krachi East seat in 2016 with 14,551 votes against the NDC candidate’s 14,504; thus a difference of 47 votes. 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 to 496 votes with 11,572 votes against 12,068 from the NDC’s Helen Ntosu in 2020 election.
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 24,478 votes by the incumbent, the NDC’s 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.
He said the show of support by the Chiefs and people of Oti and the party members has not gone unnoticed by the government and the Party.
It is no wonder the national executives of the party led by Freddie Blay on their recent visit described the Oti region as “a stronghold in the making.”
Mr. Dapaah stressed that “the government of Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr. Bawumia will not abandon the Oti region. The government will even do more than it did in the first term to ensure Oti becomes the envy of other regions.”
From Fred Duodu, Nkwanta (k.duodu@yahoo.com)