Let me welcome you friends from the media once again to this occasion of bringing you the real facts from the deception that is being shared by no other person than the president of the republic, Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-addo himself since the last few days.
Ladies and gentlemen, We found the need to respond to this urgently because of the disrespectful nature of untruths being peddled by the leader of the nation some of which we believe are simply as a result of his desperate need of retaining power at all cost due to his lack of developmental achievements to demonstrate.
Friends from the Media, sometime like this four years ago, President John Mahama was proudly commissioning projects he had promised and accomplished all by himself and the whole world bore witness to the fact that he had indeed done as expected taking the full credit of such projects.
It is unfortunate that the current president has refused to take a cue from what his predecessor did in so many folds of development but has resolved today, in these last few months of his failed presidency to gather well meaning Ghanaians, look straight into their eyes and rub them roughly with wild dust as though we were a bunch miscreants who cannot differentiate from what is white and what is black. This is very very unfortunate.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you are a citizen of Damongo, busunu Etc and found a place in your heart today to smile at the deceptive words of President Akufo-addo after he concluded his speech of providing Damongo with a water Project, I say to you today that you should immediately transform that smile into an unforgivable, unpardonable and unremittable pain bestowed on you by this same President Akufo-addo and that pain must be exhibited in the upcoming election by voting out this inept Akufo-addo led Government of no shame.
I will not just end my bitter expressions here but will demonstrate in full what i mean by the So called Damongo Water project as launched by the President today is a scam of the highest level, a 419 of the 21st century and no different from the gargantuan “Kalabule” that brought about the revolution for the 4rd republic.
I won’t bore you so much with the efforts made by President John Mahama in providing the people of Damongo with water of which everybody is aware that if he were in power today, the people of Damongo would have seen water flowing from their taps since 2017. The records as shown in the parliamentary order paper dated 20th December, 2016, shows clearly the $35million dollar funding source secured from Eco Bank and brought to parliament for approval to set up the facility at a light speed rate. Kindly take note of the cost as i will be referring you back to it.
Immediately after President Mahama handed over power in 2017, President Akufo-addo kept that project on a hold, wrote to parliament to suspend it and reffered it for unnecessary auditing just like was done to other contracts awarded. This saw the project being stalled for 2 years until somewhere June 2019, when the project caught the presidents attention again.
Ladies and gentlemen, all these years that passed by, the NPP government kept arousing the appetite of the good people of Damongo anytime they read their Budget as it was mentioned in the 2018 budget, 2019 Budget and subsequently the 2020 Budget.
The member of parliament for the Damongo Constituency Hon. Mutawakilu put up a question in August 2017 requesting the minister for water and sanitation to give an update on that same water project. The minister indicated the government had withdrawn the agreement by President Mahama and were considering two other sources of funding for the project.
The President in his visit to the Yagbon- wura’s palace on may 20, 2019, assured the king and his people again that the Damongo water project was to commence that same year(2019) as everything meant for the project had been secured as approved by his cabinet and the project was to cost $39million.(See MyjoyOnline).
Meanwhile Dr.Bawumia had also visited Damongo sometime earlier and assured the people the Damongo water project was to commence immediately and was to a tune of $24million.
Friends, that was the beginning of our losing hope in this government’s promise to continue the John Mahama started water project. The contradictions, the wrong timings and the juicy uncoordinated talks proved that they had nothing like the Damongo water project in mind or on their table. What they had was a bucket of lies, always ready to spread it on us whenever we follow up on their promise.
For clarity purposes kindly take notice of the “Damongo water project”.
Friends from the media, a new agreement was taken to parliament for some water projects under the “water for all policy” to be done at various towns in the northern sector. We had the Tamale water project, The Yendi water project among others but never saw the Damongo Water project. Upon enquiring, we were told that the Damongo water project had finally been abandoned and added onto the $272million Tamale water project in the Northern region. What a shock!!!!!!!
What happened to the H.E John Mahama $35 million Damongo water project sent to parliament for approval, what happened to the Nana Addo promised $39million Damongo Water project, what happened to Bawumia’s $29million Damongo water project promised and what happened to the consistently Ken Ofori atta budgetary mentioned Damongo Water project. Again What a shock!
The Tamale water project as made to become the so called Damongo project is to take a period of almost 5 years( 6months development stage, 4years installation) to be completed at it’s location. How long can the people of Damongo stay thirsty as consistently said by President Akufo-addo?
Ladies and gentlemen, we wish to state on record that there is nothing like the “DAMONGO WATER PROJECT ANYWHERE” in this world. The NPP have denied us this long overdue project and have simply decided to rush here into deceiving us all because there is an upcoming election.
Parading our paramount chiefs to such a deceptive durbar is the highest level of disrespect and gross misbid done us by President Akufo-addo yet again and this is clearly an inhumane improvement of what President Kuffuor also did to the late Damongo wura.
We dare them to show us the contract documents of the Damongo water project agreement, the company incharge, the site plan, the location in Damongo where the project will be situated, the project duration, the amount involved and the day the people of Damongo will see “Ghanawater” flow from their taps.
These are legitimate questions we are sure every indigene of Damongo, the West Gonja and beyond are willing to know.
Atleast we all saw how the Damongo road project was awarded and sod cut for project to commence by President John Mahama even after same NPP under president Kuffuor deceived the late Damongo-wura into sitting on a grader and after his sodcutting the grader was sent back to Accra and never returned. We will not sit and allow for same to happen this time.
Under President Mahama contractors were on site for up to 6months on the development phase of the Fufulso – Damongo road even before he came down to cut sod for the project and indeed even until today we are sure that president Akufo-addo enjoyed his trip on that same road as constructed by President John Mahama. Why cant Akufo-addo learn same morals from his predecessor?
Lets we forget, President Akufo-addo in 2018 on a visit to Damongo promised to institute temporal measures towards settling the Damongo water crisis and as part of his efforts he promised 10 mechanized boreholes to be setup immediately in Damongo. Friends from the media, 2 years down the lane, not even a single well has been drilled not to talk of a borehole. How can such a man who cannot provide common boreholes as promised, be expected to provide the entire Damongo and its environs a singular water prcessing project? I mean How?
Ladies and gentlemen at this point i can confidently say without any dot of doubt and put my integrity on the line that if the NPP fulfills their Damongo water project promised, before this elections as they promised or if by the 1st of December 2020 Ghanawater flows through the taps of Yagbon- wura, I should be banished from entering Damongo by the chiefs and people of our land. This i say with all my heart!
Mr. President, We have still not forgotten our 4 million dollars owed each Constituency in the Savannah region, our factories, warehouses, Actual Dams, share of 350 senior high schools, chocolate for students et al promised us before we gave you the nod.
All these if not fulfilled should automatically notify you that the social contract entered into by yourself and the good people of the region has come to a regrettable end and we shall show you the exit on 7th December, 2020.
We thank you all for coming as we are fully ready for any contra facts to what has been displayed here so far as the deception, 419 Damongo water project is concerned.
God bless you.
Malik Basintale
Communication Officer
NDC- Savannah Region
0540444414
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