Members of the Ayensuano District Assembly have criticised Mr Samuel Aye-Paye, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayensuano Constituency, for what they have termed as his intentional refusal to attend assembly meetings.
Under the current local government system, an MP is an ex-officio member of the assembly and is required to attend meetings of the House to brief members on government policies and in turn present the concerns of the members, who are the accredited representatives of the communities, to Parliament for redress.
However, all the four sittings of the assembly since its creation about two years ago had not been attended by Mr Aye-Paye although the House claims to have duly informed the MP of the dates for all the four meetings, including an emergency one, to discuss vital issues affecting the communities in the area.
At the recent meeting held at Coaltar, the district headquarters, last Thursday, the representative of the Kyekyewere Electoral Area, Mr Paul Som, raised the issue and wondered why the House should continue to tolerate what he referred to as a deliberate refusal of the MP to be present at the meetings.
He said the MP must be in the House to either respond to questions or brief its members on steps he was taking in Parliament to improve the lot of the people in the constituency.
Motion
After a lengthy and heated debate on the issue, all the speakers, except the representative of Aye Kokooso, Mr Ernest Akuffo, condemned the attitude of the MP and a motion was moved by the member for the Amanase South Electoral Area, Dr Addo Agyekum, for a letter on the issue to be written to the MP and copies to the Speaker of Parliament.
However after further deliberations on the issue, it was agreed that the MP should be contacted either on phone or by a letter but without copying the Speaker.
Rebuttal
But in a swift rebuttal from Mr Aye-Paye on phone, he denied ever being contacted either on phone or by a letter concerning assembly meetings and stated that he was ever prepared to make himself available for such meetings.
“This is a deliberate attempt to throw dust into the eyes of my constituents, whom I have been reaching out to all the time, that I do not have their interest at heart so that they would not vote for me in the next constituency elections.”
“I do not also see my inability to attend assembly meeting as the core problem of the people who are determined to vote for me because I regularly visit them in their communities to know their plight and how best to solve their problems,” he stated.
DCE speaks
Earlier in an address, the District Chief Executive, Mr Mike Ofori Darko, said the development agenda of the assembly was on course and that within two years four boreholes had been drilled at Budu, Amanase, Apau Wawase and Asuboi, while there had been on-the-spot improvement (maintenance) on a number of feeder roads such as the six-kilometre Kraboa-Asuboi feeder road.
Mr Ofori-Darko told the House that 90 per cent of communities that had been approved under different phases would be hooked to the national grid by the end of the year and that 100 treated poles had been received specifically for Coaltar.
The assembly had also rehabilitated a number of schools such as the Teacher Mante Presbyterian Primary School and another one at Dokrokyiwa, while 1,000 pieces of dual desks had been distributed to 31 schools in the district.
