Gilbert Asmah
Information DAILY GUIDE has gathered indicates that some thugs, believed to be aligned to the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality of the Western Region, stormed the offices of the Tarkwa Municipal Assembly yesterday afternoon to attack the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Gilbert Asmah.
The cause of the attack was not immediately known but sources had it that the angry party members have been accusing the MCE of surrounding himself at the assembly with perceived activists of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
“So the party members including some constituency executive members went to the assembly to ostensibly force the MCE out of office”, the source indicated.
DAILY GUIDE has been informed that but for the timely intervention of the police, irate NPP members in Tarkwa-Nsuaem would have ransacked the MCE’s office.
Recently, some executive members of the NPP in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality asked President Akufo-Addo to, as a matter of urgency, remove the MCE from his position.
The party members claimed they had lost faith in him and were calling for his removal from office for non-performance.
According to them, instead of the MCE working to consolidate the gains of the party in the area, he was covertly weakening the NPP’s political fortunes in Tarkwa-Nsuaem.
They asserted that having assumed office as MCE, Gilbert Asmah was pursuing an agenda of total disregard for the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, George Mireku Duker and the NPP hierarchy.
“The MCE has betrayed our collective resolve to develop our municipality and constituency”, they indicated.
At a press conference in Tarkwa, the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Constituency Secretary of the NPP, Benjamin Kessie, noted that the MCE was taking certain initiatives in the area without consulting party executives.
He alleged that the MCE was leading an agenda to ensure that the MP for the area became ‘one term’.
He mentioned that the MCE had surrounded himself with some people suspected to be members of the opposition NDC who were preventing them from having access to him.
“The MCE, in collaboration with other antagonists, is manufacturing tapes and generating damning propaganda against the MP and the constituency party leadership “, he stressed.
He continued “The MCE’s presidential posture has thwarted efforts by leaders of the party in the area to build bridges”.
He accused the MCE of leaking information on every action to some people for publication to put the stakeholders in a bad light.
He also alleged that the MCE made public pronouncements to the effect that the MP and some party leaders were consulting shrines to frustrate him (MCE) from bringing development to the people.
“We have submitted petitions to the appropriate offices for the removal of the MCE. We want someone who can pursue the government’s agenda of massive development at the local levels”, he stated.
MCE Reacts
Reacting to the allegations, the MCE, Gilbert Asmah, denied all assertions insisting he had no problem with the MP for the area and constituency party leadership.
According to him, the problem of some of the executives was that he was having a cordial relationship with the former MP for the area, Gifty Kusi.
“Because Duker contested the former MP in the party’s parliamentary primaries and lost, they see anyone perceived to be a supporter of Hon Kusi as their enemy “, he added.
“They also want me to sack all civil servants at the municipal assembly perceived to be NDC members.
“These are the problems they are having with me but I am focused and would not allow some of these issues to distract me from carrying out my duties as MCE”, he explained.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi