The National Chairman of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, says the NDC is not surprised the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) is buying votes ahead of the May 23, 2023 by-elections at Kumawu in the Ashanti Region.

He said the NPP has over the years neglected the area because it was originally a Convention People’s Party (CPP) seat.

He explained that Krobo Adusei was elected the first Member of Parliament (MP) for the area on the ticket of the CPP.

He noted that Kumawu and Mampong Constituencies have always been CPP seats and not NPP seats as people have been made to believe.  

He noted that even though the area is in a region known to be the stronghold of the NPP, it has over the years been an opposition seat.

He said because of the history of the Kumawu area, NPP deliberately neglected the area.

He argued that the area saw no development under the NPP except under the NDC.

He said the NDC’s administration built a state-of-the-art hospital and it was about 97 per cent complete when the NDC left office in 2016.

The NPP upon assumption of office neglected the project, he said, adding that some NPP elements said the reason for the party’s decision was that the project was built in the outskirts of town.

“Who builds a hospital in Makola?” he asked, explaining that hospitals are built in serene environments to aid healing.

The National Chairman of NDC made these comments in an interview with Odeyeeba Kofi Essuman host of the Ghana Yensom morning show on Accra 100.5 FM on Monday 22, 2023.

He said it was the NDC’s administration through the Kumawu-Konongo-Kwahu (KKK) project who brought potable water to Kumawu.

“It is because of the NDC that people of the area are bathing in showers today,” he added.