Bimbilla, (N/R), Nov. 30, GNA - Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has reiterated need to ensure that the December 7 elections were free, transparent, peaceful and credible.

Nana Akufo-Addo, who was addressing a rally in Bimbilla in the Nanumba North District, accused the National Democratic Congress (NDC) of preaching the politics of ethnicity, which was not good for the unity of the country, saying that Ghana was made up of several ethnic groups that should be allowed to live in unity in diversity. He said after 19 years of PNDC/NDC rule, the party could not deliver and Ghanaians should not put their destiny in the hands of incompetent, inefficient and bankrupt leaders, who had nothing more to offer them.

Nana Akufo-Addo said he would bridge the development gap between the North and the South with the establishment of the Northern Development Fund, which would be used to among other things to improve upon the road network in the North, expand educational infrastructure with special emphasis on technical education. He said the airport in Tamale would also be developed into an international airport city to link the North to the neighbouring countries.

Nana Akufo-Addo said agriculture would also be modernised to make the North the breadbasket for the whole of West Africa adding that marketing companies would also be established for the purchase and sale of soybeans, groundnuts and shea butter. Mr Alan Kyeremanten, a Leading Member of NPP, said 60 million dollars had been approved for the establishment of a groundnut-processing factory for the three Northern Regions. He said the factory, which would be sited at Buipe in the Central Gonja District, would need about 50,000 groundnut farmers to feed it adding that the factory would thereby provide a lot of employment to the youth.