Hamile (U/W), Oct 27, GNA - Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) presidential running mate, has said it had come to the notice of the leadership of the party that some people had started going round the communities and peddling lies that the NPP was anti-alien.

He said such a campaign was intended to create fears and panic among aliens, aimed to discourage people from not voting for the NPP and also tarnish the image of the party in the sub-region in particular and the world as a whole.

Dr. Bawumia was addressing supporters of the party at Hamile, a border town in the Lambussie-Karni District, as part of his three-day campaign tour of some communities in the Upper West Region. He said: "The NPP welcomes all our friends and neighbours to come and help us build a strong and prosperous Ghana." "We urge you to dismiss such weak lies that opponents of the NPP are peddling round that aliens will be deported from the country should the NPP win power," he said.

Dr. Bawumia said throughout the seven years of NPP administration, nothing of that kind had happened and it would never happen and gave the assurance that the focus of the party was about the development of the people. He said it was for that reason Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the presidential candidate of the party, pledged one billion dollars to the Northern Development Fund to cater for the development needs of the three northern regions.

He called on people in the Upper West, Upper East and Northern regions to vote massively for the NPP in the December poll to enable it to implement its development agenda for the area. At Jeffisi in the Sissala West District, he told supporters that his candidature as a running mate to Nana Akufo-Addo should be seen as a representation of all the people in the three northern regions and the Zongo communities. He said the choice in this election is about moving forward and moving backward and northerners should not gamble with their votes this time round but to vote for the NPP for development, progress and prosperity.

Dr. Bawumia addressed similar rallies at Sakai in the Sissala East constituency and Daffiama in the Nadowli East Constituency.