<<Print>>A member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the 2012 parliamentary aspirant in the Ashaiman Constituency, Mr Tony Afenyo, has retracted a statement he made to the effect that the Member of Parliament for the area, Mr Alfred Agbesi, bought votes during his re-election bid in 2012.
He told the Daily Graphic that he could not substantiate the allegation, hence the retraction. It will be recalled that the Tuesday, July 14, 2015, edition of the Daily Graphic, reported that two members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Ashaiman Constituency had declared their intention to contest the current Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Mr Alfred Agbesi, in the parliamentary primaries of the party likely to be held in the last quarter of this year.
They are Mr Tony Afenyo, who contested the 2012 parliamentary election as an independent candidate, and Mr Ernest Norgbey, an official of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO).
They told the Daily Graphic in separate interviews that Mr Agbesi had become unpopular, had failed to fulfil any of the promises he made and had “outlived his usefulness."
They said the NDC risked losing the parliamentary election in the constituency to the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in 2016 if the parliamentary candidate was not changed.
Mr Afenyo, a former ward co-ordinator, branch organiser, branch secretary, branch chairman and constituency vice chairman of the NDC at Ashaiman, said Mr Agbesi promised in 2004 that after serving two terms as an MP, he would give way to another person to contest.
He said the MP, however, kept changing his word anytime primaries drew near, sometimes denying that he ever promised to give way to another person after eight years. He said Mr Agbesi had failed to lobby for development projects for the community and had not facilitated employment for the youth.
According to him, Mr Agbesi had become very unpopular due to his non-performance and lack of charisma in the constituency. He also alleged that during the last election, he spent huge sums to buy votes.
"In Ashaiman, the NDC is so popular you don't have to buy votes. The fact that he bought votes is a clear writing on the wall that if we do not change him, we will lose,’’ Mr Afenyo said in the publication in reference. Mr Afenyo said he (Afenyo) had the leadership qualities, had served the party since 1992, was very popular in the constituency and would garner more votes for the party in 2016.
Mr Norgbey, said the grass-roots of the party in the constituency had been neglected.
"No jobs have been provided for the youth; people who had toiled for the party in the past have been neglected and we are lagging behind in development. We have to change the face of politics at Ashaiman. Agbesi has done his best but his best is not enough, " he said.
He said although he was an ordinary party member, he had done a lot to energise the party at the grass roots. He said he had provided 1,500 plastic chairs to 17 ward offices, as well as the constituency office, secured jobs at NADMO for 17 members of the party and small loans for women in the party to trade, among many other things.
Mr Norgbey said contrary to speculations, he had deep roots in the party and had served as an organiser of the Tertiary Education Institutions Network (TEIN) of the NDC in the 1990s when he was a student at the Takoradi Polytechnic.
He said he was also among party members who organised the Tamale Congress of the party in 2012. When Mr Afenyo was asked to substantiate his allegations or face court action, he could not do so.
However, he had no other option than to unreservedly retract those comments he made against the incumbent MP for Ashaiman, Mr Agbesi, upon receiving a letter from the MP threatening court action against him.