Loggu U/W, Dec. 6, GNA - Mr. John Dramani Mahama, vice presidential candidate of the NDC, has said if the people in the Upper West Region have a sense of pride, not a single person would vote for the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

He said the NPP had demonstrated that it has no respect for the people in the region as President John Agyekum Kufuor had refused to appoint any person from the region as a cabinet minister. He said when President Kufuor's attention was drawn to it he said he could not find any qualified or suitable person in the region to appoint as a cabinet minister.

Mr. Mahama said this at a rally at Loggu in the Wa East District as part of his one day campaign tour of some communities in the Upper West Region He said President Kufuor, again in his second term of office, had not visited the Upper West Region for the past four years and had also denied the region the benefits of projects under the Millennium Challenge Account.

"I feel pity for those of our brothers and sisters who are going round campaigning for the NPP because the people in the region have not benefited under the NPP administration and should not vote for the NPP", Mr. Mahama said.

He said the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) under the leadership of former President Rawlings created the Upper West Region to bring development to the people and urged the people to reciprocate this gesture by voting massively for the NDC to come back and develop it. He expressed regret that the Wa East District, which had been created for the past four years, had no electricity, potable water, communication network and a senior secondary school in its capital, Funsi, to upgrade it to a district status.

Mr. Mahama promised that those facilities would be provided if the NDC was voted to power to improve the economic growth of the district.

Mr. Mahama assured the people in the Upper West, Upper East and Northern regions that a government of the NDC would treat sheanut as a special crop and establish three sheabutter extraction factories in each of the regions to create jobs for the people.

An NDC administration will also establish a Sheanut Development Board to oversee the development of the crop separately from cocoa. Alhaji Iddrisu Mahama, a leading member of the NDC, called on Ghanaians, especially the rural people, to reject the NPP as some of its parliamentary candidates were going round the communities sharing money and distributing motorcycles, bicycles and wax prints as well as salt and fish to the people to persuade them to vote for them and the party. "These items are not beneficial. It is our money that they have stolen, take it and vote them out. Don't let them to corrupt you with these stolen things".

"The NDC does not believe in giving money or other gifts to people persuade them to vote for the party. We believe in training and the building of the capacity and skills of people as well as empowering them to become self dependent."

"The gifts that they are giving to you now is your share of the national cake that they have denied you for the past four years, take them and say no to them", he said. Mr. Mahama also addressed similar rallies at Dorimon and Wechua in the Wa West District.