Tema, Sept. 30, GNA – Mr Yohanes Amarh Ashitey was on Thursday elected as the new Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive after securing 28 ‘yes’ votes representing 97 per cent of the 29 Assembly Members present and voted.
This was in accordance with the Local Government Act which requires that the President should nominate a candidate for the position and the nominee must secure the yes vote of at least two-thirds of Assembly Members present and voted.
Even though the TMA has 31 Assembly members made up of 21 elected and ten government appointees, two of the members did not show up and one voted no.
The election was conducted by the Electoral Commission.
In his maiden speech, the new MCE thanked President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the assembly members for the nomination and confirmation respectively for the confidence reposed in him.
He gave the assurance that the welfare of Assembly members would be his utmost priority and urged them to work with him to develop their respective electoral areas.
He said it was about time that Tema took back its former glory and become the model Assembly it used to be, this he said he would achieve through putting in place innovative revenue mobilization initiative to increase its internally generated funds, good sanitation, revenue control, youth employment, among others.
Mr Henry Quartey, Greater Accra Regional Minister, on his part thanked all the Assembly members in the Region for working towards a one touch confirmation for the nominees in the Region.
Mr Quartey also commended all the presiding members of the various district assemblies in the Region as according to him they had collaborated well with his outfit to ensure an incident free confirmation so far, saying this showed that democracy was about good collaboration, communication and trust.
Mr Quartey said he would hold Mr Ashitey to task for the contents of his acceptance speech stressing that, “you are supposed to be the referee not the player, be very objective and ensure that the Assembly works, don’t fight anybody’s fight for him”.
He urged him to hit the ground working by next week and ensure that discipline was restored in Tema and he recounted his childhood days in the Metropolis.
Mr Enoch Teye Mensah, Greater Accra Regional representative on the Council of State, Mr Isaac Ashai Odamtteng, Tema East MP and former Tema MCE as well as Mr Yves Hanson-Nortey, Tema Central MP all called for support and collaboration from stakeholders for the new MCE while giving the assurance that they would work closely with him.
Some dignitaries that grace the confirmation ceremony included Mr David Anang, and Mr Robert Kempes Ofosuware, former MCEs of the TMA, Mr Ashong Narh, former MP for Tema East, Tema East constituency executives of the NPP, Rev Lawrence Tetteh, international evangelist.
The profile of the new TMA MCE Mr Ashitey available to the Ghana News Agency indicates that he is a 43-year-old graduate of University of East London and is a Telecom Engineer with 17-years’ experience in corporate engineering specifically mobile and fixed networks.
The MCE is also a former lecturer at Cavendish College, in the United Kingdom, is also graduate of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), and Presbyterian Boys SHS-Legon.
With over a decade experience in frontline politics, he has served in several capacities in the Tema East Constituency of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as Elections Coordinator, Technical Advisor, and patron of some committees of the party in the 2020 General Elections.
He was also the chairman of the NPP’s youth wing campaign team for both the Presidential and Parliamentary election in 2020.
As part of his achievements, his is credited with improving network availability from 94 per cent to 99 per cent in his first year as the Regional Manager of Huawei for Volta and Eastern Regions.
He is said to have empowered a number of youth in Tema through his educational support programme which provided scholarships for needy but brilliant students, as well as created jobs for some unemployed youth.
GNA