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THE NEWLY-elected Presiding Member (PM) of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), Nana Owusu Apeasa II has started work at the assembly on a rather bad note. The KMA PM, who is also a chief, has incurred the wrath of Kumasi residents over what could be described as his first official activity at the assembly. Nana Apeasa II has been chastised and scorned by residents of Kumasi for over his alleged lack of consistency in word and deed. This followed Nana Apeasa�s decision to issue a press release dated June 20, 2011 with the headline �KMA Assembly Members Support the Work of the Mayor.� The first among the five points raised by PM in the press release was that �it is not true that the Mayor, Hon. Samuel Sarpong undertook the decongestion exercise without informing the assembly. The decongestion exercise was contained in the Mayor�s sessional address which was discussed at the General Assembly meeting and adopted as a working document.� Nana Appeasa who seemed to be doing some hurriedly arranged crisis management for beleaguered KMA Chief Executive, Samuel Sarpong, also denied that the KMA boss was practicing divide and rule tactics. The statement further cautioned that henceforth, the assembly would not hesitate in applying severe sanctions against anyone whose conduct would violate the assembly�s rules of engagement. Surprisingly, Nana Appeasa was the same person who distanced himself from the controversial Ahodwo Roundabout decongestion exercise last week in a chat with Boss Fm in Kumasi, saying the KMA boss did not inform him about the exercise. Boss Fm�s Morning Show host, Kwabena Prah Jnr., after reading the press release on the network on Tuesday morning, played back the portion of his interview with the PM where Nana Apeasa stated categorically that he was not informed about the KMA decongestion exercise. The replay of the tape portrayed the PM as a hypocrite and this perhaps angered listeners of the programme who decided to call into the programme to express their displeasure about Nana Apeasa�s inconsistent statements. Almost all the callers into the programme slammed the PM whom they accused of acting like someone that could not be trusted to do a thorough job at the assembly. The Kumasi residents said by his actions, he had proven beyond every reasonable doubt that his stay in office as KMA PM would be disastrous for the assembly and Kumasi in general. The callers wondered what had suddenly changed within a period of just one week to make Nana Apeasa II, who earlier said he was not informed about the decongestion exercise, come out with a different statement altogether. Some of the angry callers even said some unprintable words in the form of a proverb about the KMA PM whom they also slammed for starting work at the assembly on a bad note.