In an interview with journalists on Tuesday, the Paramount Chief of Tema Dr. Nii Adjei Kraku II, said President Akufo-Addo must stamp out the popularity contests in Tema East and Tema West, that have turned the Mayor of Tema, Felix Mensah Nii Annang-La, into a whipping boy.

 “The Mayor and the Tema Metropolitan Assembly are being wrongfully blamed as incompetent or lacking the political will to evict illegal squatters and encroachers in various parts of Tema; the truth is that the Mayor is being frustrated by the MPs here,” Tema Mantse said.

Nii Tema said if the President does not rise up and stamp out the unhealthy popularity contest, the MPs will rob Tema of development in their bid to shore up political support for themselves.

He lamented on last week Thursday’s upheaval in Community 2, which saw the MP for Tema West, Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah, lead illegal squatters to resist demolitions of unauthorized structures by the TMA, as a direct result of the popularity contests in Tema.

Mr Carlos Ahenkorah, who doubles as the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, openly spoke against the demolitions because those affected are supposedly strong members of the support base of the NPP in Tema West.

But the TMA had moved to carry out the demolitions at the Cocoa Village because Cocobod, has stopped paying property rates to the TMA over the Cocoa Village in protest to the TMA’s refusal to clear off illegal squatters from the frontage of the village.

Simply put, therefore, the continuous existence of illegal encroachers on the Cocoa village lands translates to the deprivation of money in the form of property rates to the TMA from there.

As part of the resistance, Mr. Ahenkorah’s group had a near fisticuffs with the Tema Metropolitan Engineer, Maxwell Adu Boateng.  “This is totally unacceptable; are we supposed to sidestep the laws of the land just because people who support the ruling party want to want they want? And at the end of the day, the same Mayor that is being prevented from carrying out his duties will be blamed for the lack of development in Tema, “Tema Mantse said.

 According to Nii Tema Mr Ahenkorah, the MP, told an Accra based Radio Station that the TMA had earlier attempted to demolish structures in Tema East too but that it was fiercely resisted.

 “Mr. Ahenkorah’s reference to the abortive demolitions in Tema East by the TMA is in respect of the Mayor’s attempt to similarly pull down structures in Community One, around the TMA area.

 “On the main road in front of the TMA, there is an eyesore of illegal structures used by encroachers to trade. Similar structures are located around the Community One market.   However, about a month ago, when the TMA made moves to demolish these structures, the MP for Tema East and Deputy Minister for Transport, Mr Daniel Nii Kwartei Titus Glover, similarly led the people to resist. Here too, the reason was that the people affected are seen to be NPP voters,” Tema Mantse said.

The Chief of Tema said, Mr Felix Mensah Nii Annang-La, is painted by the MPs as a demon to the people for attempting to carry out legitimate developmental duties and that it was Tema which would lose in the long term and urged the parliamentarians to demonstrate show for the President’s representative in the Metropolis.

“By law and reason, the office of the Metropolitan Chief Executive is an extension of the office of the President and disrespect for him is tantamount to disrespect for the hardworking President of the Republic of Ghana,” he said. He therefore urged President Akufo-Addo to call the MPs in Tema to order as both MPs belonged to the ruling party.