A former Deputy Attorney General, Joseph Dindiok Kpemka, has ridden a bicycle to submit his nomination forms to contest in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) primary in the Tempane constituency in the Upper East Region.
Flanked and cheered by his supporters, the legal practitioner, rode the bicycle for about seven kilometres from his house at Kpikpira to the party’s constituency office at Tempane to file his forms.
While some spectators were of the view that the former Deputy Attorney General was broke because he had not been given appointment in the second term of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s government, he clarified that, he wanted to identify himself with his constituents who were predominantly rural poor.
“My place is a place of underprivileged people, poverty stricken area and when somebody rides a bicycle, it is a toil the people are able to afford a bicycle, it is the most common and cheapest means of transport.
“Majority of my people are poor, so, I have to identify with them on the occasion of my filing by saying that the common thing they do every day, I share with them and whatever they do and I am one of them,” he emphasised.
Mr Kpemka served one term as Member of Parliament for the Tempane constituency after winning the 2016 election against Mr David Adakurugu, the late husband of Madam Lydia Lamisi Akanvariba, the current MP who he lost the election the 2020 election to.
Mr Kpemka explained the current MP had done nothing to improve the development initiatives that he started as an MP and that he was making a triumph return to Parliament in 2024.
He said the 2024 elections was going to be an easy job for him as their four years development records would be compared in which he stood tall, indicating that in terms of human resource and infrastructure development, his records were visible for the electorates to see.
He said “it was under my initiative that we had a Polytechnic constructed from start to finish, we started 13 school blocks, we completed nine, under the one village one dam, we did eight and rehabilitated a major dam to serve as irrigation facility for the farmers and procured subsidized fertilizer for the poor and needy who could not afford.”
In addition, he said, through his efforts, about 200 youth in the area who had diploma and degrees were recruited permanently under the Ghana Education Service during his tenure, while the area had the most number of beneficiaries under Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) than any district in the Upper East and Upper West Regions.
Under the Rural Electrification project, he said, about 54 communities were initiated under his regime and efforts were still ongoing to ensure that the communities were connected to the national grid.
The Deputy Attorney General faces stiff competition in the NPP primaries as he would have to beat Ibrahim Bashiru, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer for the Youth Employment Agency who had also filed nomination forms to contest in the primaries in the area.
Mr Kpemka said he had impressive development records to regain the seat than his competitors and appealed to the delegates to endorse him in the primaries to lead the party in the 2024 elections.
He said his networks went beyond the NPP fraternity and added that although he was confident the Party would break the eight he had the connections to lobby for development projects even if the NPP does not retain power in 2024.