The flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the upcoming elections, John Dramani Mahama, has said if elected on December 7, he will retrieve all seized excavators and concessions belonging to small scale miners that have been handed to supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

According to him, the NPP government has failed to deliver on its promise to fix the problems facing small scale miners in the country.

“They have sidelined those of us who do not belong to their party and not their relatives from the mining sector to go hungry to allow party faithful and DCEs to rather engage in the mining. This is not right at all. There are individuals whose excavators have been confiscated because they were accused of doing illegal small-scale mining. These excavators are sadly later given to NPP supporters who eventually send them back to do same illegal small-scale mining.”

“What it simply means is that some people are seen not to be Ghanaians hence they are treated this way. That’s why I have said that when we win the elections, we will look everywhere for the confiscated excavators and return them to their rightful owners. We will also return all confiscated concessions that have been given to NPP party folks to their rightful owners. We will do this because all Ghanaians are humans. We owe this to Ghanaians because NDC is a party that hates selectiveness which Ghana’s independence declaration also rejects,” he said.

John Dramani Mahama made the comments when he addressed a durbar of chiefs and people of Agona Amenfi in the Amenfi Central district as part of his four-day tour of the Western Region.

The NDC flagbearer also assured the cocoa farmers that should he win the upcoming polls, he will return the free fertilizer policy for cocoa farmers which he said has been cancelled by the current administration.

The Chief of Agona Amenfi, Nana Kweku Amoah I, appealed to Mr Mahama to bring better roads to the area if elected.

He also urged the President to keep his promise to return the free fertilizer policy for cocoa farmers to support them and improve yields.