Strong indications from the New Juaben South constituency in the Easten region, are that delegates of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have lost faith in their Member of Parlaiment (MP), Michael Kofi Okyere Baafi, over his inability to steer the course of his area folks.
Chiefly amongst Baafi’s sins is that after bombarding his constituents with conscience-soothing falsities to unseat Micheal Assibey Yeboah, the MP has nothing to show for the three years he has represented the constituency.
Even the road that leads to his own house in Koforidua, the delegates say, is so unmottorable that the MP allegedly sleeps from one hotel to another.
Consequently, the NPP delegates, this paper gathered, have resolved to replace former Chief Executive of the Ghana Free Zones Authority with a more formidable and listening candidate-Yaa Ansaa Safori.
Yaa Ansah Safori, even before the delegates decided to settle on her candidacy, had undertaken more developmental and people-oriented projects in the constituency than the MP and his allies combined.
So formidable is Yaa Ansaa that, last year, fearing for a possible future contest, Baafi, together with some few deep pockets in the area, allegedly sponsored and paid delegates to ensure her loss when she contested to become the Women Organiser of the constituency.
Yaa Ansaa Safori is still in the consultative stage of the delegates’ call, but the response from the elders of the party, many of who are disappointed in the deputy trade minister in-charge of the One District, One Factory(1D1F), has been a resounding greenlight for her to unseat the MP to maximise the party’s votes in the 2024 election.
“Ask Baafi, the deputy minister of trade, how many of the 1D1F projects he has commissioned in his own constituency, yet we always see him on TV and hear on the radio; how he’s been commissioning them in other constituencies. What does he take us for? Fortunately, he doesn’t have the money to throw about like he did the first time. And there is no government machinery behind him this time. So, we will wait and see what he’ll come and tell us this time,” one of the distraught elders of the party told this paper on condition of strict anonymity.
He continued in an interview with this paper over the weekend, that “we agree we made a mistake with Kofi Baafi, and we are ready to correct that mistake. At least if we can’t get Assibey Yeboah again, we need a better representation than Baafi. Now our impact in Parlaiment is not felt, which should not be the case.”
It promises to be a fierce contest and perhaps one of the constituencies to look out for if Yaa Ansaa Safori eventually files to contest because, this paper learnt, all those who sponsored Baafi during his contest against Assibey Yeboah have been swayed to Yaa Ansaa’s side.
More so, Yaa Ansaa is the only person who knows how to unseat Kofi Baafi.
So far, our checks revealed that Kofi Baafi has acted on every speculation about who could possibly contest him and pleaded, where pleading failed, has allegedly cautioned the potential candidate to back off, with the exception of Yaa Ansaa.
Yaa Ansaa’s flyers have started flooding WhatsApp platforms of the constituency delegates, with some volunteering to post them on walls and street corners in their bid to ensure that what they call a bad rubbish would be sent packing.
Stay tuned.
