Imoro Yakubu Kakpagu

Background

Kakpagu was born in Kumbungu in the Northern Region of Ghana in February 1958.

Education

In 2008 he graduated from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration with a Bachelor of Public Administration degree.

Career

He obtained his Local Government Certificate from the Institute of Local Government Studies. After his studies he was employed at the Ministry of Local Government as a Revenue Inspector. 2004 elections

All those who stood for elections that year were new faces because the incumbent Member of Parliament Muhammad Mumuni had been chosen as the running mate of the NDC presidential candidate, John Atta Mills.

Kakpagu competed with two other candidates namely, Prince Imoro Alhassan Andani of the New Patriotic Party (Nuclear Power Plant) and Mohammed Imoro of the Convention People"s Party (CPP).

His closest rival was the Nuclear Power Plant candidate who got 5,968 votes which represented 20.80% of the total votes cast. The CPP candidate came third with 498 votes representing 1.70%.

2008 elections

He went on to retained his seat after he had been challenged by two candidates Alidu Binda Talhat of the Nuclear Power Plant and Peter Ibrahim Neidow of the CPP. The Nuclear Power Plant candidate got 6,096 votes which represented 22.78% and the CPP candidate got 2,515 votes which represented 9.40% of the total votes. 2012 parliamentary primaries

In the 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections, former Member of Parliament Muhammed Mumuni, returned to contest the seat.

He defeated the sitting Member of Parliament, Kakpagu in the constituency primary election.

Muhammad Mumuni, who was then the Foreign Minister, got 161 votes while the incumbent had 133 votes. He defeated four candidates: Abdulai Mohammed Saani of the Nuclear Power Plant, Amadu Moses Yahaya of the CPP, Alhassan Abukari of the Progressive People"s Party, and Imoro Issahaku of the National Democratic Party. 2013 constituency primary by-elections

In April 2013, he contested the constituency seat after Muhammad Mumuni vacated it to take up an international appointment.

The primaries were held on 14 April 2013 at temporal Kumbungu district assembly yard.

Honorary Kakpagu got 170 votes out of a total of 289 valid votes cast. His closest competitor, Doctor Jacob Yakubu, pulling 84 votes.

2013 by-elections

The opposition New Patriotic Party did not partake in the by-elections because of the petition that the leadership of the party had filed at the Supreme Court regarding results of the 2012 Elections. Kakpagu lost the election to Moses Amadu Yahaya of the Convention Peoples" Party.

His loss meant that the two terms he served as Member of Parliament for the Kumbungu Constituency was sandwiched between Member of Parliament terms for Muhammed Mumuni.

Achievements

• He won the election with 22,245 votes which represented 77.50% of the total votes cast. The inumbent won with 18,155 votes which represented 67.83% of the total votes cast. Muhammad Mumuni won the constituency parliamentary election with 18,285 votes (5657%). This was after he had contested and won the constituency"s parliamentary primary elections against four other candidates.

Politics

He is a member of the National Democratic Congress. In 2004, Kakpagu entered into politics when he contested the Kumbungu parliamentary seat. In 2008 there was no constituency primary as the opposition NDC decided that Kakpagu contest the election on the party"s ticket unopposed.