Navrongo, Oct, 28, GNA - Mr Mark Woyongo, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentary candidate for the Navrongo Central Constituency in the Upper East Region, said if he wins the seat he would establish an education endowment fund to cater for needy but brilliant students. He said one of the major challenges confronting students in the area was lack of funds to enable them pay their school fees, and that with the establishment of an endowment fund many of the students would be sponsored to further their education. Addressing a rally on Monday in Navrongo, he said with his international exposure he would lobby to get more scholarship packages for students in the area, saying, one of the major tools that could be used to address poverty in the area was education. He said he would construct more small irrigation dams in the area to engage the people especially majority of the youth who migrate to the southern sector to search for non-existent jobs.

Mr Woyongo indicated that he would help modify the National Health Insurance Scheme to enable majority of people get registered with the scheme. He urged the electorate not to do anything that would mar the forthcoming elections, saying Ghana existed before political elections. Mr Woyongo entreated supporters of the party to be extra vigilant in monitoring the forthcoming election to avoid cheating. He later paid a courtesy call on the Paramount Chief of the Traditional Area, Navro-Pio Dr Ben Adda and told him that he had filed to contest for the Navrongo Central seat and asked for the chief's support.

Mr Arthur Belania Adda, a representative of the Navro-Pio on behalf of the Paramount Chief, thanked the candidate for his visit and appealed to him to do his campaigning with civility.

Mr Adda commended Mr Woyongo for his humility, respect and hard work but expressed his displeasure about what he described as the negative attitude of the current Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Mr Kofi Adda, towards the traditional council and alleged that the latter does not respect the Navrongo Traditional Council.

Mr Ibrahim Adam, a former Minister of Food and Agriculture under the NDC regime said the Tono Irrigation Project would be turned into a model Agriculture Estate which would produce and process food crops. He said the NDC party would make the land reform project more flexible to create room for more people to have access to farming and other economic activities.

He said the NDC Government would give top priority to the local initiatives of chiefs for effective development, since they were major partners in development.

He urged the electorate to give Mr Wayongo their mandate to enable him to bring more development to the area, describing him as a man of few words but who delivers on his promises. He indicated that Mr Woyongo had an impressive track record and had already justified that by assisting many people in the area especially women to engage in businesses, and had also supported many schools with logistics.

Mr Gilbert Iddi, former Northern Regional Minister under the NDC Regime said people were living under fear and panic under the current government and urged the electorate to vote the NDC to power. He indicated that the NPP had pledged to make secondary education free to Ghanaians and queried, "If the party cannot provide the School Feeding for Secondary Schools in the Northern Sector for 6 months, how can it provide free secondary school education for all?" 28 Oct. 08