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Friday, March 11, 2016

Fishermen group declare: We will campaign massively for a Nana Addo victory in 2012

Accra, Jan 17 - The Ghana National Inshore Fishermen Association last Thursday called on the 2012 Presidential Candidate of the NPP, Nana Akufo-Addo to declare their support for him in the upcoming 2012 general elections with the promise to “campaign massively for Nana Addo to win power so that the NPP can come back in 2012.”

With representation from all six branches along the coast from Tema Manfort to Elmina, Sekondi, Takoradi, Axim and Apam, the group enumerated a myriad of problems that they have been facing ever since the NDC came to power two years ago.

Led by the Chairman of the Tema branch, Mr. Joe Karamoh, the group lamented how the closing of the Ministry of Fisheries amounted to a major setback to their operations.

“The closing down of the Fisheries Ministry dealt a major blow to us because we had a direct working relation with the ministry and that really facilitated our work. Today a whole lot of things are going sour because the ministry does not exist anymore” they noted.

They mentioned how the importation of fish into the country has shot up drastically under the Mills-Mahama administration blaming it on the local fishing industry’s inability to produce to its optimum because of the problems they are facing.

They spoke about the problems with the boat yards and the how the dry docks have been sold to Malaysians who are not interested in the progress of the local industry.

They mentioned that “last year alone we lost up to seven fishing vessels because we don’t have a place to repair them. This is also very dangerous as lives could be lost in the process and we recommend that the repairing sites be decoupled from the dry docks.”

They continued that “in Tema East for example, mending of the nets is our biggest problem and we have complained to the appropriate authorities time and again but they just wouldn’t pay any attention.”

They noted that “under the NPP, the ministry introduced social intervention programs specifically tailored to cushion fisher folks and their families but since the NDC came to power, everything has been scrapped.”

They thanked Mrs. Gladys Asmah and Mr. Ishmael Ashittey, both former Ministers in charge of the fisheries ministry for their brilliant and much needed contributions that really supported them in their work to ensure that they could live dignified lives and take care of their families.

On the issue of landing sites, they said the President in his encounter with the media in the castle did not tell Ghanaians the truth when he attempted an answer to Kweku Baako’s question.

“We were present in 2008 when former President Kufuor came to Jamestown for the inauguration and I Joe Karamoh even read a speech on that day.”

The 2008 National Best Fisherman, Kojo Sortoh Mensah, who is the Secretary for the Elmina branch, also spoke immensely about how the NDC’s policies and programs did not favour their trade.

He noted that “come 2012 we will work hard to ensure that Nana Addo and the NPP win the elections and we are convinced, given what we see and hear from our colleagues and family that this will surely come to pass.”

On his part, Nana Addo thanked them for calling on him to declare their support for him and to pledge that they will campaign massively for him to win power in 2012.

“I told my wife when I woke up this morning that I am looking forward to this meeting with you because you are a very powerful group in our country. It is a good beginning of the year for me that an important group as yours with an active working population of about 600,000 will call on me in my home and declare your support for me and the NPP and I hope it continues like this” he noted.

He continued that “I never understood it when the Mills-Mahama government announced the scrapping of the fisheries ministry because these are people who helped you come to power and their reward was to collapse the ministry that helps facilitate their work.”

“When we return in 2012, we will bring back the fisheries ministry to help facilitate your work and help solve all these problems that you face today” Nana Addo noted.

He also called on them to continue to document all their problems because “we will need your inputs when we are drafting the fisheries portions of our manifesto.”

Also present at the meeting were Mr. Boakye Agyarko, Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku, Mr. Ishmael Ashittey, and Dr. Kwame Amoako-Tuffuor.

NPP Communications Directorate
NPP Headquarters, Asylum Down. Accra.

Dep. Director: Curtis Perry K. Okudzeto
(024-9679008)