Stalled electrification project at Twifo: Government just wants to make me look bad – NDC MP

The residents of Gatokrom Krobo Number 2 Electoral Area in the Twifo-Atii Morkwa Constituency of the Central Region are seething with anger over a stalled 2020 electrification project.

The residents are arguing that the electric poles that were brought into the area during the heat of the 2020 general elections with the assistance of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) parliamentary candidate, Ebenezer Obeng Dwamena have been left to rot.

A Unit Committee member of the area, Abeka Mohammed, expressed the residents' frustration with the stalling of the project on the Ghana Yensom morning show hosted by Odehyeeba Kofi Essuman on Accra 100.5 FM on Tuesday, February 28, 2023.

He said all the adjoining areas in the electoral areas of the constituency have electricity but "It is only Gatokrom Krobo number 2 that does not have electricity."

"While we are living in darkness, the poles that were brought for the project are rotting away," he bemoaned.

A former Electoral Area Coordinator on the ticket of the NPP in the area who took inventory of the poles said he went for the poles from the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) Office upon the instruction of the NPP parliamentary candidate.

He said all attempts to get the District Chief Executive to ensure the project is revived have fallen on deaf ears.

According to him, the contractor who was tasked to work on mounting the electric poles is nowhere to be found.

"Leaving the treated teak poles to rot under the vagaries of the weather," he observed.

For his part, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Twifo-Atti Morkwa Constituency, David Vondee, told the host of the programme that he had been able to trace the contractor by name China Water Company Limited.

He added that when queried, the contractor explained that there was no money for the project.

"It is this same no-money syndrome that has affected the project," he stated.

He further accused the government of dragging its feet in extending developments to the area because they '"want me to look bad in the eyes of the electorate.”

"Eighty per cent of the people in my constituency are rural folks and I know the NPP wants to win the seat so they are doing everything possible for my people to fall out with me to enable them to win come 2025. But as MP, I will continue to lobby till some of these projects are completed," he stressed, adding that the work of an MP is to lobby.