Member of Parliament for the Bantama Constituency, Francis Asenso-Boakye has shared the motivation behind some of his supporters holding a food party to celebrate his recent victory in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary primaries.

According to the MP, the ‘konkonte’ party was inspired by a negative assertion by Kennedy Agyapong (Assin Central MP) who sought to denigrate him over his mother's trade.

“When Honourable [Ken Agyapong] came, he was denigrating the job of my mother that fed many people in the community and he said that my mother is a kokonte seller so it infuriated [people],” he explained when he sat with Bola Ray as guest on Starr FM’s Starr Chat on Thursday, February 1, 2024.

Asenso-Boakye clarified, however, that his late mother rather sold rice balls popularly referred to as omu tuo.

He added that Kennedy Agyapong’s attempt to denigrate the work of his late mother infuriated his supporters and some constituents who held the party as a clapback to celebrate his victory against Ralph Agyapong.

“I think it doesn’t matter whether it’s omu tuo or kokonte, they are all local foods that are prepared and sold. So a lot of people were very upset in the community. Market women, widows; my mother was a widow and given the sacrifices that my mother made to make sure that a had a very decent self… that is why some people decided to have the kokonte party and it was very massive,” he said.

Asenso-Boakye who is the current Minister for Works and Housing, polled 650 votes, commanding an impressive 78.22% of the total votes cast in the Saturday, January 27 contest.

On the other hand, Mr Agyapong secured 181 votes, representing 21.78% of the overall vote count.

In the lead-up to the election, a heated campaign ensued in Bantama with Kennedy Agyapong who is the current Member of Parliament for Assin Central and a former flagbearer contestant of the NPP, leading the campaign for his brother.

Amidst the campaign, the Assin Central MP levelled several allegations including corruption against the minister.

Asenso-Boakye in his interview denied all the allegations describing them as baseless.