The Nanumba North District Chief Executive, Abdaulai Yaquob, has explained to Citi News that he personally ordered managers of the water treatment plant at Binbcheratanga to hand over keys to the facility to allow for some investigations into their activities.
He thus denied the claim that he supported supposed NPP loyalists to seize the facility, and hand it over to party loyalists.
According to him, his intervention in the management of the water treatment plant in the area was as a result of incessant complaints from assembly members and opinion leaders about mismanagement of the plant.
[contextly_sidebar id=”pJFuTB22mj4SSJLwMpiv15sKARDoK6gm”]Speaking on Eyewitness News on Tuesday, Mr. Yaquob said claims by the manager of the facility that it had been forcibly taken from him and handed to supporters of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) were false and must be disregarded.
“It is absolutely false. It is never true. When I came into office, there were a lot of complaints from assembly members and opinion leaders about how the water system was being managed. Financially, there was a problem and they were complaining,” he said.
He explained that, “We reconstituted the community water management committee, appointment letters were given to members who were appointed, but because of the complaints of alleged financial malfeasance on those committees, the assembly instructed the internal audit unit to conduct an audit of the account of the water project…. I was called two days ago when there were calls that there was a problem at Binbcheratanga concerning the water committee and people were trying to create problems among themselves. So I wrote a memo to the manager and the chief that once it is becoming a problem, they should give the keys to the chief so that the following morning I’ll come so we resolve it.”
Earlier reports received by Citi News indicated that, some youth suspected to be supporters of the New Patriotic Party, backed by the DCE, had taken control of the community water system.
The Chief of Binbcheratanga, Naa Andani Azuma, who corroborated the story, said he turned away some supposed party youth who came to ask for the keys to the facility twice, but the DCE came later and took it himself.
Meanwhile, the situation has resulted in a water shortage over the past four days in Binbcheratanga, forcing residents to trek long distances to a single borehole for water at the risk of cholera.
But the DCE has assured that the community will have an uninterrupted water supply from today [Wednesday].
“By Wednesday, water will be flowing into the community. Someone tampered with the wiring so the problem will be fixed.”
Meanwhile, the former manager of the facility, Musah Alhassan, insists that the DCE directed him to hand over the keys to the facility amidst threats although he did nothing wrong.
–
By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana