North Tongu Constituency Secretary of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Volta region, Shabanton Moses Kwesi Dutsrogbe, has dismissed claims by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that the region has seen more development under President Mahama than when NPP was in power.
The outspoken politician consequently challenged the NDC to name all their so-called monumental achievements in all the twenty-six constituencies in the region for the people there to see.
“They (NDC) should point out one project they have done in the Volta region…most of the projects are those the NPP started and did not complete before the party lost political power in 2008. …Even those they are working on, they are not complete yet, so why should they make noise about them?” he asked.
“…the NPP government started the Eastern Corridor Road and since the NDC took power not even a single kilometre has been added to the road. We are getting impatient with this kind of propaganda. Nothing much of social and infrastructural development is happening in this region. Seeing is believing; I challenge the NDC government to publish the list of schools removed under trees in the Volta region and we will praise them for it,” Mr. Dutsrogbe said in an interview with Today.
The NPP firebrand was reacting to recent comments by some top officials of the NDC in the region that the ruling “NDC has done more for the region in terms of development projects than NPP,” claiming that the region currently has 2000 development projects including the completion of Akatsi-Vedze road and many others.
Mr. Dutsrogbe described these claims as “laughable and deception,” saying that the region has seen much more social and infrastructure development under the former President John Agyekum Kufour-led NPP government than the ruling NDC of both the late President John Evans Atta Mills and John Dramani Mahama administration.
He mentioned a long list of development projects which he claimed the erstwhile Kufuor administration did.
These, he said, included a comprehensive road network programme which was shown to the media at a press conference in May 2004 in Ho by the then Regional Minister, Kwasi Owusu-Yeboah.
Others were the 4km Ho missing link road, the 16km Sokode-Abutia road and the 11km Akrofu-Bame road.
According to him, the Klefe junction-Klefe, Ziavi-Anfoeta as well as the Tanyigbe-Atidze roads was all reconstructed.
He disclosed to Today that the NPP also undertook major maintenance works on the Ho-Nyive, Honuta-Kpedze, Fume-Dzolokpuita and Ho-Ahunda roads.
“Indeed there is close to 25000 km extensive routine maintenance on feeder roads to attest to the then NPP government’s commitment to open up access to economic activities in the region,” he added.
In the Ho district, for instance, the NPP man said, ¢2.4 billion cedis was spent on the rehabilitation of the Ho Central Market, ¢7.5 billion on the market mall complex, ¢179.5 million on the 2-bedroom Hlefe nurses quarters, ¢85 million on the Abutia satellite communication system and ¢154 million on the mechanisation of a borehole at Anyinawase.
He disclosed that the NPP government spent billions of cedis on educational infrastructure throughout the Ho District from basic through secondary to tertiary level to help create wealth in a region which has “suffered badly despite its unsurpassed loyalty” to the erstwhile Rawlings regime.
Significant among these, he noted, were the ¢298 million Avenui JSS complex, the ¢135 million Etodome JSS block, the 4-storey classroom block for Ho Polytechnic as well as the Headmaster’s bungalow for Abutia Secondary School.
The situation was not different in the Ketu District where more than 15 towns and villages received water extension schemes totaling over 6 billion cedis.
Notable among them, according to Mr. Dutsrogbe, were the coastal belt water supply schemes at Adina, Blekusu, Amutinu and Glidz-Afuta and Avloto.
Others, he mentioned, included ferro-cement rain water harvest tank at Tokor-Aflao, Kpoglu Kporkuve, Xipe and Dekpor.
“The rehabilitation works on the Ohawu irrigation scheme, Ative reinforced concrete surface water tank as well as the ¢2 billion Danida-assisted Ngokpo water supply project were all in their final phases of completion before the NPP handed over power to the NDC,” he asserted.
According to Mr. Dutsrogbe, the Keta district has “seen more infrastructural development since January 2012” as 100 out of 150 different projects executed by the Assembly were completed, including the ¢1.8 billion Dzodze market facelift project.
In May 2003, he disclosed that the ¢65 million Kporkuve teachers quarters were commissioned to spare teachers the daily trouble of trekking 6kms between Afife and Kporkuve.
The magnificent 84 million dollars Keta Sea Defence Wall, according to him, was completed and handed over to the NDC.
However, for whatever reason he said, the people had refused to occupy the housing project supposedly because “it was not the NDC that executed it.”
He told Today that the NPP’s administration, in partnership with the Japanese International Development Agency (JICA,) also started funding the construction of the 55-kilometre road from Sokode-Gbogame-Juapong through Abutia and the 13-kilometre Sokode-Gbogame-Bame road, which shortened the distance between Ho and Hohoe, and Juapong-Adidome and Kpong-Aveyime.
Meanwhile, the claims by the NPP had been supported by the chiefs and people in some traditional areas in the region who have been complaining day-in-day-out about unfulfilled social and infrastructure projects promised by the Mahama-led administration.
The traditional rulers refuted the Volta regional minister’s claim that work on the Ho-Sogakofe road was ongoing saying, “In fact, we are not happy for all these years that they have seen this road.”
They then described the road as election bait. “We are a bit mature. It seems that road is always being used as bait by the NDC government to garner votes from us.”
For his part, the Paramount Chief of Ho Traditional Area, Torgbui Koku Ahiem IV, lamented that: “Anytime we (chiefs) or people from that area travel to Ho, before you get here you have become a multi-coloured human being–you are either red or black because of the dusty nature of the road.”
He further complained about the Worawora-Jasikan-Hohoe road which he described as very bad.
He pointed out that the Hornuta-Dzolokpuita road which is an international one and had been abandoned for a long time could not be among the so-called achievement list of the NDC.
According to the chiefs and people of Vakpo, the Import Marketing and Quality Awareness Centre built in his area had been abandoned, with weeds taking over one of the three state-of-the-art facilities in the country.
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