Vote NPP Out - Dr. Mahama

THE LEADER of the People's Convention Party (PNC), Dr. Edward Mahama, has urged the electorate not to renew the mandate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at the next elections because of its inability to arrest Chris Asher, a fugitive and suspected murderer and also for not prosecuting perpetrators of the massacre of the Ya-Na Yakubu Andani and some 40 others during the Yendi chieftaincy crisis.

"The government should not be allowed to go free for not convicting perpetrators of a broad day light massacre. Anytime anybody commits a crime, he or she should be arrested. To allow such people to go free is unfortunate. It is unfortunate that in the particular case of the Yendi crisis, nobody has been convicted for those day light murders. It is a failure on the part of the government and they cannot be allowed to go away with it so easily," he told The Chronicle.

"We must let them know that it is wrong for them to allow criminals, murderers to be walking in the streets when indeed there are the BNI, Police and the Army to arrest such people. The government should be told that criminals are not so powerful that they cannot be arrested."

Dr. Mahama, who was speaking in an interview last Friday, said after the government's poor performance in terms of job opportunities, security of the citizenry and high school fees among other lapses, the only wise thing the electorate should do, is to vote the NPP out.

The PNC leader rejected the suggestion that the government still needs time, having been in office for only three years. To this, he retorted: " They have failed to bring about the change that the people are looking for. Poverty is still on the increase, unemployment is still on the increase, and people are still dropping out from school because they cannot afford fees, armed robbery is on the increase."

He said if the electorate decided to vote for the NPP, "then we are choosing them for a failure that is obvious."

Dr. Mahama said during the reign of the defunct PNDC, a lot of illegal weapons got into wrong hands, which are now being used to rob people and that the government is not doing enough to retrieve these illegal weapons.

"If you have weapons in your hands and there are no jobs, the tendency is to use the weapons to rob people in order to make some livelihood," he said.

He described the government's policies of zero tolerance for corruption and golden age of business as nothing more than empty slogans.

"We have said time and again that, the zero tolerance for corruption is an empty barrel. The golden age of business is just a slogan because it is not manifesting in the lives of ordinary Ghanaians. Salaries are not commensurate with the increase of fuel prices and high school fees. Everybody is jostling and so, basically, we cannot say the government has done a good job," he noted.

The PNC leader expressed support for the idea of the funding of political parties by the state, saying he preferred that to using the money on a bloated government.