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The immediate past Minister of Food and Agriculture and a flag bearer hopeful of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, last Wednesday defied the torrential rains that hit Assin North and other parts of the country to campaign for Charles Opoku, the NPP parliamentary candidate for the Assin North by-election.
Notable among the areas he visited to solicit votes for the party’s parliamentary candidate included Assin Bereku (District Capital), Assin Praso, Assin Asempaneye, Akenkanse, Akonfudi, Dansami, Assin Mempasem, Assin Kushia, Assin Senkyem, Assin Brofoyedu, Assin Juaso, Assin Breman and Bediadua.
In all the areas he visited, Dr Akoto interacted with the people and urged them to vote massively for Charles Opoku to enable him to lobby for more development projects for the communities.
Dr Akoto was accompanied by the NPP candidate, Mr Opoku, National Chairman of the party, Stephen Ayesu Ntim, General Secretary, Justin Frimpong Kodua, National Organiser, Henry Nana Boakye (Nana B), Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo- Markin, and the Minister of State at the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Osei Bonsu Amoah.
The rest were the Campaign Chairman for the Afriyie Campaign Team and former Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the party, Alfred Boye, and National Coordinator for the campaign, Peter Oteng Darko, among other party officers in the Assin North Constituency.
When the news hit the Assin North District that Dr Akoto was in town, and had started campaigning for Charles Opoku, some rice farmers in the district, numbering about 400, gathered themselves to ambush him at the district capital, Assin Bereku, where they lauded him for positively impacting their lives when he was the minister of food and agriculture.
At this point, Dr Akoto had no choice but to address the rice farmers at a nearby Catholic Church before continuing his campaign tour.
He expressed his appreciation to the rice farmers for honouring him, and assured them of President Akufo-Addo’s commitment to supporting their activities.
The relationship between the rice farmers and Dr Akoto dates back to when he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kwadaso and Ranking Member of the Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs Committee of Parliament.
It was during one of their meetings that the then government led by John Dramani Mahama sent a proposal from the Korean Ambassador to Ghana to Parliament about a programme they have designed to study the economic potential of the Central Region.
The said sponsorship programme by the Korean Government did not materialise due to little or no interest from the then government.
However, when the NPP under the leadership of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo took over the political administration of the country from January 7, 2017, Dr Akoto immediately reactivated the Korean Government’s sponsorship deal.
Addressing the rice farmers, he said that when the Korean experts presented their report, they were of the view that the Central Region had the potential to produce enough rice to feed Ghana and West Africa in general.
