AHAFO ANO NEEDS PEACE ... (Page 16)

Story: Kwame Asare Boadu, Tepa

A GROUP calling itself the Concerned Youth of Ahafo Ano North has called on the entire youth of the district to guard against the activities of people who want to use them to create confusion in the district and make the government unpopular for political reasons, especially as the nation is in the election year.
The group said the district needed peace to develop, and as such any person who decided to undertake any activity that would threaten the peace and unity to eventually tarnish the image of the government must be shunned.
At a news conference at Tepa, the district capital, last Friday, to respond to some allegations by one Richard Merz, President of the Tepa Youth Association (TYA), against the District Chief Executive (DCE), Nana Eric Agyemang Prempeh, the spokesman for the group, Mr Ransford Hammond Donkor, said “it was obvious that the allegations were only meant to score political points.
Mr Merz had alleged in a press statement that the DCE was frustrating the TYA in undertaking its activities because of the decision by the association to question the DCE’s mismanagement of the district.
He alleged, for instance, that Nana Prempeh had frozen a financial support (bursary) instituted by the assembly which supported students in the district.
However, the spokesman said “it is obvious that the assertions by Mr Merz are brewed out of falsehood and personal vendetta or scores which he wants to settle with authorities”.
Mr Donkor said through the DCE, the bursary, which used to be GH¢30 per academic year when the DCE assumed office in August 2007, had been raised to GH¢ 50 now, and added 120 more students as current beneficiaries.
He also denied an allegation by Mr Merz that the DCE ordered that members of the association be denied entry to the Tepa Town Hall for a meeting when the Omanhene of the town, Nana Adusei Atwenewa Ampem, had given them the go-ahead to use the centre.
He stated that the allegation was only meant to sow seed of disunity between the DCE and the Omanhene when no animosity existed between them.
Mr Donkor noted that from all indications, Mr Merz was out to use the allegations to advance the course of his opposition party in order to paint the DCE and the government as corrupt and insensitive to the plight of the people.