Former Member of Parliament for Subin and aspiring General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Eugene Boakye Antwi, has dismissed claims that NPP MPs from the Ashanti Region rejected proposed flyover projects in favour of community roads.
His response follows recent comments by NPP stalwart Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, who reportedly told party members in Manchester that Ashanti MPs turned down flyover projects designed for the region.
Speaking on Nhyira FM’s morning show monitored by Kumasimail, Boakye Antwi described Gabby Otchere-Darko’s claim as entirely false and misleading. According to him, at no point did the NPP caucus in Parliament reject such infrastructure proposals.
“It’s not true that we ever rejected any flyovers in Parliament,” Boakye Antwi stated.
“During one of our caucus meetings, former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta came and told us point blank that roads do not win elections.”
He insisted that his claim could be verified by any NPP MP who attended the meeting.
“I am telling you, call any MP who was in the room to confirm. Ken Ofori-Atta said it himself during a caucus meeting involving all NPP MPs at Parliament House that it’s not roads that win elections,” he emphasized.
Boakye Antwi expressed disappointment that such misinformation was being spread, adding that the Otchere- Darko should stop repeating untruths about its internal decisions.
“If we keep silent today, people will distort the truth tomorrow. Some of us are still alive, and we will speak up when lies are told,” he said.
He further accused Gabby Otchere-Darko of displaying arrogance in his recent remarks, saying such attitudes contributed to the NPP’s waning public goodwill.
“We are apologizing to Ghanaians because of the arrogance we showed in governance. What Gabby is saying now is another example of that arrogance,” he added.
Addressing specific claims that the Roads and Highways Minister, Kwasi Amoako-Atta, met the Ashanti MPs over project selections, Boakye Antwi said that never happened.
Instead, he explained that the former Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah, once called a meeting in Kumasi asking MPs to submit their key road priorities.
“At that meeting, I said for Subin, our roads were in relatively good shape. I suggested that priority should rather go to areas like Kwabre East, where the votes are much higher,” he recounted.
Source: www.Kumasimail/Kwadwo Owusu
