Ekye-Amanfrom, Mar.19, GNA - The government has been called upon to adopt stringent measures to check the spate of armed robbery that was engulfing the nation recently to flush out the miscreants.

"Government must look at the armed robbery menace with all the seriousness it deserved, because if care is not taken it can go a long way in making the government lose its popularity with the people as they cannot feel secured in a country where armed robbers are always on the lead."

The Eastern Regional Chairman of the NPP, Nana Adi-Ankamah, who made the call at Ekye-Amanfrom when addressing polling station executives at Ekye-Amanfrom in the Afram Plains South constituency, said he believed strongly that there were people behind the robberies seeking to disgrace the government.

He recalled that soon after the 2000 election, the nation experienced the upsurge of armed-robbery but it subsided in the middle of the term, "but now, just after the 2004 elections, the same canker has reared its head."

Nana Adi Ankamah called on all functionaries of the NPP to be vigilant in order to help the security services trace the root cause of the upsurge of the robbery to safeguard life and property as well as the image of the party for the next general elections.

He said the 2005 budget statement created reliefs for the poor which indicated that the NPP government was mindful of the less endowed in the society but bent on mobilizing the needed taxes to develop the country for the benefit of both the rich and poor.

He asked the party executives in the area to explain the provisions of the budget to the people to enable them to appreciate the reasons why government had to increase fuel prices. Mar. 19, 05