The first deputy Speaker of Parliament who represents the Bekwai constituency in the house Joseph Osei Owusu (Joe Wise) and his alleged girlfriend, Perpetual Agyemang were resisted by New Patriotic Party (NPP) delegates in the constituency when they both attempted to campaign for commissioner of police (COP) George Alex Mensah (Rtd), who is one of four persons contesting in the upcoming NPP parliamentary primaries on Saturday, 27 January 2024.
The two, Joe Wise and his alleged mistress Perpetual Agyemang, were in most of the electoral areas they visited on Wednesday, 10 January 2023, hooted at or snubbed by the majority of the delegates they intended to meet as part of their campaign tour of the constituency on behalf of COP Alex Mensah who is said to be trailing his main contender in the primaries, a lawyer in private practice, Ralph Poku-Adusei.
In a related development, the majority of New Patriotic Party (NPP) delegates in the Bekwai constituency of the Ashanti Region snubbed the incumbent member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency, Joseph Osei Owusu (Joe Wise) when he visited the constituency on Tuesday, 9 January 2023, to campaign for commissioner of police (COP) George Alex Mensah (Rtd).
Mr Osei Owusu after serving as MP for the Bekwai constituency for four terms (16 years), will no longer contest in the December 2024 general election to represent the constituency in Parliament but has instead decided to support the candidature of (COP) George Alex Mensah (Rtd) much to the displeasure of the delegates of the Bekwai constituency.
Some of the delegates who refused to attend the campaign meeting organized by Joe Wise as part of his three-day tour of the constituency from 9 to 11 January 2024, told journalists that their sitting MP, Joe Wise, is supporting COP Mensah because he is preparing the grounds to get his alleged female friend, one Perpetual Agyemang, to contest the Bekwai parliamentary seat after COP Mensah has served a term as the MP for the constituency.
Mr Osei Owusu’s attempts to campaign in the Koniyaw, Dotom, and Asokore electoral areas in the Bekwai Constituency, for example, were met with stiff resistance from the youth in the community. The youth pointed out that Joe Wise over the last 16 years has done very little for the constituency and that he should exit peacefully and allow the constituency to choose their own MP independently.
The youth in Koniyaw, Dotom, and Asokore electoral areas went as far as to say they are banning the sitting MP, Joseph Osei Owusu, from coming to their towns and villages to campaign for the retired COP, Alex Mensah ahead of the 27 January 2024 NPP parliamentary primaries.
They indicated that they (the youth of Bekwai) want him to exist quietly and to leave the constituency to take its destiny into its own hands and to choose their next member of Parliament on merit.
In other areas such as Adjemesu, Dominase, Senfi, and Poano electoral areas, Joe Wise is said to have suffered humiliation as delegates in the constituency declined to attend the campaign meeting organized by their serving member of Parliament.
The delegates posited that MP throughout his tenure, failed to visit them or to get their roads fixed for them but has found it necessary to visit them to campaign for his own chosen successor.
