The Bolgatanga East District Chief Executive (DCE) in the Upper East Region, Reverend Emmanuel Abugre Abole, has refuted an allegation leveled against him by the Bolgatanga East Constituency Executives of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) of using fertilisers meant for the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJs) for campaigning for votes for the upcoming party’s primaries.
He insisted that he what gave out to polling station executives and the party’s elders was not to bribe them to vote for him, but all the15 Municipal and District Chief Executives were given 200 bags each to help support some members of the party who were smallholder farmers.
The Executives alleged that Rev. Abole, who had picked a form to contest as one of the party’s parliamentary candidates for the primaries, was seen giving out 200 fertiliser bags of 25 kilogrammes to the electoral areas coordinators to be distributed to the 175 polling executives and some elders of the party.
David Amoah, the Constituency Chairman of the party, on behalf of the executives, stated that the DCE picked the form few days ago to contest the primaries and followed up immediately distributing the fertilisers to the polling station executives.
“Rev. Abole’s action is not only a calculated attempt to use his incumbency to bribe polling station executives to vote for him, but also gross violation of laid down rules of the party’s structures to reach out to polling station executives.
“Per the party’s constitution, before you can get to the polling stations to undertake any activity, the party’s structures must be followed, the timing in which the DCE carried out the action is not only questionable, but he also failed to contact the constituency executives in carrying out his action, and it is gross violation of the party’s constitution,” Mr Amoah stressed.
He indicated that Rev. Abole does not involve them in his administration and that if care was not taken to resolve the issue now, it would affect the fortunes of the party in the region in the 2020 general election.
According to Rev. Abole, in an interview with the Ghanaian Times, he decided in his wisdom to distribute his share of the fertilisers to polling station executives and also refuted the allegation that he does not involve constituency executives in his administration saying, “I have invited them severally to many of the programmes but they refuse to turn up.”
According to Rev. , in an interview with the Ghanaian Times, he decided in his wisdom to distribute his share of the fertilisers to polling station executives and also refuted the allegation that he does not involve constituency executives in his administration saying, “I have invited them severally to many of the but they refuse to turn up.”
FROM SAMUEL AKAPULE, ZUARUNGU