Prez Mahama Pushes Ashanti Visit To Friday

PRESIDENT JOHN Mahama has postponed his intended visit to the Ashanti Region to inspect ongoing government projects from Thursday, May 1 to Friday, May 2. Ideally, the President was supposed to visit the Ashanti Region on Thursday, May 1 to begin his two-day working tour of the area but the date of the visit had been changed at the last minute. President Mahama who visited Kumasi on a quiet note on Sunday, reportedly, changed the date of his visit from Thursday to Friday, before he left for Accra on Monday morning. National Democratic Congress (NDC) executives in the region led by Yaw Obimpeh, the regional chairman, were making frantic efforts to give the President a rousing welcome on Thursday. What influenced President Mahama�s decision to change the date of his visit to Kumasi from Thursday to Friday could not be immediately ascertained by the paper. Snippets of information making rounds in NDC corridors indicated that President Mahama decided to postpone the visit from Thursday, May 1, because it is a national holiday. A credible source in the NDC said on anonymity that the change of date of the President�s visit to the region had been relayed to the party gurus so they are planning a massive welcome ceremony for him on Friday. Per the new arrangements, he said the President and his team would hit town on Friday and they would go to Accra on Sunday after two days working tour of the area. The source said the places in the region that had been penciled for the President and his team to visit had not been changed, adding, �It is only the visiting date that has been changed.� He said the President would visit the Asantehene�s palace on arrival on Friday and also proceed to Tepa, Mampong and other selected areas in the region to inspect government projects. President Mahama�s planned visit to the Ashanti Region, deemed as the stronghold of the opposition, NPP, had been postponed on several occasions. The President was initially billed to visit the region late last year but it was postponed at the last minute to a different date which was eventually postponed again. Since the beginning of 2014, the President�s visit to the Ashanti Region had been postponed on countless occasions, giving room for people to speculate.