A sinister plot hatched by the Chief of Odoben in the Asikuma Odoben Brakwa District of the Central Region, Nana Kwame Nyarko Okra, and his followers to destroy the reputation of the Asikuma Odoben Brakwa District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Isaac Odoom, ostensibly to make him look bad in the eyes of President Nana Addo Dankwa Addo-Addo and the general public, has completely backfired.
This evil plan has failed because almost majority of the residents in the Odoben community whose names were used in a list of the so-called people of the area purported to have joined Nana Kwame Nyarko Okra who are urging President Akufo-Addo not to re-appoint Mr Odoom as the MCE for the area, have come out publicly to disassociate themselves from what they have described as a “malicious and mischievous statement” against the incumbent DCE.
The development attests to the fact that the residents had disowned Nana Kwame Nyarko Okra for publicly attacking the integrity of the current MCE for no wrongdoing and these people are reported to be mounting pressure on their chief to render an unqualified apology to the MCE for peddling falsehood against him.
The residents described the DCE as a development-oriented person who has worked hard to bring more projects and programmes to Odoben as well as the district as a whole which were visible for all to see.
“We all know that Mr Odoom has performed greatly to bring the needed sustainable development to Asikuma Odoben Brakwa District and nobody can rubbish his achievements, especially when those achievements were what made the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government and President Akufo-Addo popular in the area,” they maintained.
They recounted that since the incumbent DCE was appointed by the President, he has done marvelously to initiate the the following developmental projects in Odoben commuity including Pipe born water with an office complex, six Units classroom block at Odoben Presby, three units classroom block at Odosco, two units KG Block at Odoben Catholic (90% complete), Plant at Odoben health center and Streetlights in the entire community among others.
They warned that if some individuals were interested in the position of the DCE, it was not good for such persons to wrongly accuse Mr Odoom and fabricate false stories and lies just because of their selfish interest.
They further warned that the habit of attacking prominent personalities, peddling falsehood and destroying their hard-earned reputations because of political positions was not good for the county’s democratic dispensation and must stop now in Ghanaian body politics.
It would recalled that the Chief of Odoben commuity, Nana Kwame Nyarko Okra, and his people recently called on President Addo-Addo and the appointing authorities not to re-appoint Mr Isaac Odoom and accused him of non-performance and meddling In chieftaincy matters which has created confusion and tension in the area.
According to the chief, ever since Mr Odoom became the DCE of the area, he has been the worse DCE they have had, calling for his sack
The chief went on to accuse the DCE of not even stepping his foot in Odoben before except during the 2020 campaign time.
He urged President Akufo-Addo not to consider re-appointing Mr Odoom as a DCE of the area.
According to the chief, all their roads were in very deplorable state, especially the one from Breman Asikuma through Odoben to Agona Swedru.
He said constructors came on site constructing the road prior to the 2020 general election and after the election the contractors have left the site living the road in very deplorable state.
But scores of residents interviewed by this reporter after the news of the chief went viral jumped into the defence of the DCE and discounted the claims of the chief.
The residents stated categorically that Mr Odoom has done a lot to bring ustainable development to Odoben, adding that it would be a heinous crime for their chief and his followers to be attacking the integrity of the DCE.
“We cannot criticise nor speak ill of our current DCE. He has proven himself to be the best DCE we have had so far.
“We want to speak the truth and his achievements are glaring for everyone to see. He has built schools, provided potable water to our areas, improve the social welfare of the people, embarked on developmental projects and projected the image of the constituency.
So has he not done enough for us? The residents asked.
However Mr Odoom in his response stated that the misunderstanding between him and Nana Kwame Nyarko Okra all started after he [Mr Odoom] played a leadership role by making efforts to prevent the long unending chieftaincy fight between Nana Kwame Nyarko Okra and the other feuding faction in the Odoben community.
Following that development, the DCE noted that Nana Kwame Nyarko Okra has been accusing him of meddling in chieftaincy matters in the area by way of supporting the other faction, making Nana Kwame Nyarko Okra and his followers going round and peddling falsehoods against him.
According to the DCE, the chieftaincy status of Nana Kwame Nyarko Okra was under a bone of contention in the law court and that the situation has made Odoben to be without a substantive chief for the past eighteen (18) years.
Mr Oddom recounted that about a month ago, a forum was held which saw Nana Kwame Nyarko Okra firing musketry, beating war drums and singing of war songs which prompted the other feuding faction to also react.
“And that misunderstanding erupted between the two factions resulting in the pulling of guns by both parties. So when we received distress calls about the fight between the two, we quickly called in the police to intervene, so the police came and invited the two feuding factions and warned them.”
“So as the Chairman of DISEC what l did was that we invited the leaderships of the two parties including Nana Kwame Nyarko Okra and after discussion on the matter, DISEC took a decision by way of advising the two leaderships to call their followers to order.
Mr Odoom could not understand why Nana Okra will yake him on regarding the deplorable state of roads in the area.
According to him, those who are blaming the DCE for the poor nature of the road networks, especially the road from Breman Asikuma through Odoben to Agona Swedru, Mr Odoom were naive to the policies of road construction.
