General News of Thursday, 29 September 2016

Source: thechronicle.com.gh

NDC's 1m votes target in Ashanti is a joke – Samira Bawumia

Samira Bawumia Samira Bawumia

The wife of New Patriotic Party (NPP) vice presidential candidate, Samira Bawumia, has laughed off the ruling National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) ambitious target of securing 1 million votes in the Ashanti Region, come December 7, describing it as the biggest political hoax in the history of Ghana politics.

According to her, she has been trying very hard to understand why the NDC, led by “Ogu Adwuma” Mahama, would dare make such a highly impossible pronouncement, knowing very well that, even its own backyard, the Volta Region, and the three northern regions have deserted him and his party.

She contends that the only avenue the NDC can use to get closer to achieving such a target is by intimidating and rigging, warning that “indeed we are adequately ready for the NDC if they try to make good their diabolic intents in any part of the region.”

Mrs. Bawumia noted that if every NPP voter in the region will do Ghana and the party a favour and come out to cast their ballots, there is no way the NDC, with its many schemes, can rig this year’s elections.

“What is the NDC saying, to get 1 million votes here in this region? Are they dreaming or joking? Let me tell you, if every party member decides to vote, protect the ballot boxes after casting their votes, the NDC has no chance here, never,” she admonished party supporters at the Bantama Constituency, last Sunday.

Speaking at the campaign launch of the NPP Bantama Constituency, themed “Arise for Change”, and sponsored by a local radio station ASHH FM, Mrs. Bawumia charged the crowd to be bold and vigilant, as the governing party has made the Ashanti Region its priority to make sure that people in the region are subjected to constant intimidation and character assassination, in its bid to cow the people into submission.

“But we should not give up. We must be bold and stand up against their atrocities, because this election is for the NPP, and nothing should stop us from winning that overwhelming landslide victory for Nana Addo and the NPP. We must tell the NDC that we can’t be intimidated or be cowed into submission,” Mrs. Bawumia charged the teeming crowd.

Touching on the economy and why Mahama and his NDC must be booted out, Mrs. Bawumia said: “Everyone is suffering; both the rich and the poor people are suffering. The only people who are not suffering are the NDC people who are in government enjoying Ghanaians’ money and taking us for granted.”

She noted: “We need to change by teaching them a bitter and bigger lesson on December 7. Ghanaians want a government who will work for them, and not us serving the government.”

Samira Bawumia appealed to the party and Ghanaians in general, to elect Nana Akufo-Addo and her husband, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, in the forthcoming elections, for them to deliver real socio-economic transformation to Ghanaians.

She also admonished Ghanaians to consider their future when casting the ballot for a president on December 7, stressing that “this election is very serious, it is about the future. It is not about the height of somebody.

“It is about someone who has the development of this country at heart, and wants to expand this economy to create jobs. That’s what Nana Addo and my husband want to do for this country,” she added.

The parliamentary candidate for the Bantama Constituency, Daniel Okyem Aboagye, gave the assurance that the party would continue to work and rally the people behind them for victory in December.

He said there is no doubt that, this is the time for the return of the NPP, explaining that the desire of the youth in particular, to get the opposition party back to power, clearly shows that “Ghana is not ready to do another mistake and allow the NDC steal the verdict of the nation.”