Okatakyie Afrifa Caught In Ghost Boreholes Scandal

By Gifty Boateng

The contest for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary seat in Afigya Sekyere East (Ashanti Region) is turning ugly. Incumbent Mavis Nkansah-Boadu, a Bawumia loyalist, faces a spirited challenge from online broadcaster Kwame Afrifa Mensah known as Okatakyie Afrifa.

But Afrifa’s campaign has hit a credibility crisis.

At a Ghanaian community event in the United States, Afrifa was recorded appealing for funds to bankroll his parliamentary bid. That much is routine. What followed was not.

He told the audience he had already delivered potable water projects to several towns in the constituency including Fufuni, Daban, and Kokotiasua.

“I have constructed water projects for many of the towns,” he said. “Fufuni, Daban, Kokotiasua and co.”

Then came the warning: “Political godfathers who are very corrupt will organise criminals against me.”

The response from the affected communities was immediate and devastating.

Nana Dr Owusu Sekyere, Fufuni Dikro, told The New Republic he has never set eyes on Afrifa. More importantly: “There is no water project in Fufuni that is in his name.”

He detailed the real sources of the town’s three boreholes: one predates his chieftaincy, another was a COVID-19 initiative by the Presiding Member, and the third came from Kessben Foundation. “Okatakyie, it is not true he has done this,” the chief said.

Assembly Member Peprah Hayford, who represents the very towns Afrifa named, was even blunter. “No records of the Assembly say he has done any water project,” he said. “Water is not something we can see with a spiritual eye.”

Afrifa’s bid is also complicated by his own past. He once called NPP flagbearer Dr Mahamudu Bawumia “incompetent” on live television, saying Ghanaians would be “stupid” to elect him. That video has not disappeared.

Whether Afrifa still enjoys Bawumia’s goodwill is an open question. But for now, the bigger issue is trust or the collapse of it.

Peprah Hayford explained that under the Local Government Act, no individual can execute a project in a community without the assembly’s mandate. Afrifa sought none.

The assembly member also revealed a telling detail: it was diaspora Ghanaians the very people Afrifa was soliciting from who alerted him to the video. They had been approached by Afrifa’s team and wanted to verify his claims.

“If anyone abroad gives money to Okatakyie because he has built water for us, we are saying it is untrue,” Peprah said.

The chiefs and assembly member are now demanding a public retraction. “He should leave Fufuni, Daban, and Kokotiasua out of his fundraising,” Peprah added. “If he is soliciting money, let him use his own hometown Agona or Asaman not ours.”

Afrifa, who recently earned an LLM from the University of Connecticut and was welcomed at Accra’s airport with pageantry, has not responded. Instead, Peprah says, the broadcaster contacted him not to apologise, but to belittle the concerns.

Bottom line

The NPP’s internal election rules require candidates to campaign on record and reputation. Afrifa’s US pitch may have raised dollars, but back home it has raised only outrage. The people of Fufuni are clear: the water projects exist only in his speech.

One resident put it simply: “Let him come to Fufuni and point to where he built these projects. If not, God is watching.”