While there are no doubts that the Volta Region is currently the election “World Bank” of the largest minority party, the National Democratic Congress, many are those who doubt that the New Patriotic Party, which is currently in charge of national administration will ever make any appreciable inroads in the region.
Nevertheless, the NPP seems to have accepted the challenge of having to win enough votes in the Volta Region to make it geographically a truly national party and so has over the past few years been working hard and consistently to develop the region to win the hearts of some Voltarians.
Information gathered from NPP inside sources say that party activists are worried that the activities of some of their top officials are working against that goal, and have started agitating within party circles and calling on the President to ask some district chief executives in the Volta region to “step aside”.
Sources indicate that the youth of the party who are agitating for the removal of some six DCEs have accused them of making things difficult for the growth of the NPP in the region.
Asked to be specific on the accusations, the activists catalogued a list of reasons for demanding the heads of the six DCEs(names withheld).
While some accused the DCEs of their involvement in the illegal award of contracts to NPP assembly members after allegedly taking monies from them before the award of those contracts, they accused others of allegedly abandoning their residences for sojourns in hotels, thus causing financial loss to the state.
Some of the six are also alleged to have extorted money from unqualified contractors under the pretext of awarding contracts to them, while others have been accused of being instrumental in creating problems among party faithful.
Yet another alleged offence brought by party activists against the six Volta DCEs is that, some of them have diverted development projects to constituencies where they have plans for contesting as parliamentary polls come Election 2008.
Further investigations revealed that one of the DCEs is alleged to have created so much confusion among party members in the district to the extent that one activist frustrated with the party openly rained a verbal tirade on President Kufuor and also hinting at possible defections in that district.
Sources also say that party activists have a list of accusations against each of the six DCEs but insist that the varied complaints could be summarized as abuse of office and doing acts that amount to political sabotage of the cause of the party in the region.
Party faithful speak of a tendency on the part of the six to amass wealth for themselves without caring that their actions are making the NPP unpopular in the districts day by day.
The sources further indicated that sections of the NPP activists are actually calling for a probe into the activities of all 15 DCEs and the situation is gradually reaching a crescendo as the tension continues to build up.
