An AstroTurf project in Mankranso in Ahafo Ano southwest of the Ashanti Region is in limbo as the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) are accusing each other of abandoning the project.
While the NPP is accusing the NDC’s leadership in the area of sabotage, the NDC says the government has so far not shown any commitment to work on the project.
The multi-purpose pitch is said to be the only community pitch serving as a ground for funerals and other social activities, including major sporting events, in the area.
The project, which is said to have started before the 2024 NPP parliamentary primary, has since come to a halt after the grading of the surface of the football pitch.
According to the assembly member of the Mankranso Betom electoral area, the project was abandoned right after the NPP parliamentary primaries, and efforts to seek its progress have proven futile.
“One day, we went to assembly and they promised us that they were coming to upgrade the park into an AstroTurf Park. So we were all happy. I even went to praise the government of the day on our information service that this is the good news that I have heard and I have come to put it before my people and there were a lot of jubilations.
“But a month after that decision was taken, a grader came here, worked, and after their parliamentary primaries, that was the last time.”
After months of trying to get the project to continue, the NDC in the area, sarcastically went to the pitch to plant plantain suckers to support the government’s Planting for Food and Jobs programme since work was not progressing anytime soon.
The suckers were, however, dismantled by members of the NPP.
