Borrowing from the GETFund is illegal - Mills

Koforidua, Oct. 15, GNA - The flag-bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Professor John Evans Atta Mills has stated that his party considered as illegal the government's borrowing from the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) and the District Assembly Common Fund.

Prof. Mills, who was addressing NDC supporters at Suhum Zongo and Koforidua Zongo on Tuesday as part of his tour of the Eastern Region, asked the people to vote out of office a government that was bringing hardships on them.

He said the NDC had the experience in the country's management and would therefore not get itself into "dangerous experiments with the lives of the people."

The National Organiser of the NDC, Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, said the government should be held responsible for the breakdown of security at Yendi, Tamale and Bawku areas.

He said the government was entrusted with the management of the various structures to ensure peace in the country "and so if the structures are not well managed and it leads to breakdown in the security of the people, then the government that has failed to handle the situation properly needs to be told that it has failed."

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo called on the people to vote for Prof. Mills in the 2004 elections for him to bring peace to the country.

He accused the government of practicing the direct "opposite of what it promised Ghanaians in its manifesto for the 2004 elections," saying, it had been insensitive to the plight of the vulnerable by approving high and unrealistic rates for consumer services. He said, at the moment, the entire 9,000 cedis daily minimum wage could be used for only a three-minute inter-regional telephone call.

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo explained that while all over the world the increase in the use of telephones was leading to lower rates, "in Ghana under the government of the NPP, the opposite is happening."

The Deputy National Treasurer of the NDC, Mr Sallas Mensah, also accused the government of rehabilitating the old Fokker 28 presidential jet and using it only to attend funerals in Kumasi.