Fishermen slam Mills

Fishermen Friends of Nana Akufo-Addo (FIFNAA) in the Central Region have slammed President John Evans Atta Mills for his inability to find solutions to the numerous problems confronting fishermen in the country.

According to them, President Mills only capitalised on the challenges confronting fishermen in the country during the 2008 election to his advantage to convince them to vote for him.

In view of that, the fishermen have pleaded with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) delegates to vote for Nana Akufo-Addo in the upcoming national delegates’ congress of the party since they believe Nana Addo and his NPP government stand a better chance of having the concerns of fishermen addressed.

The group, who came from 29 landing beaches in the region, stated that they do not intend to divide the front of NPP in the region neither do they intend to undermine the credibility of any aspiring candidate or rivalry existing in the committees in the landing beaches, but were speaking as Ghanaians who have the right to speak their minds.

Addressing the press last week Thursday at Moree, the spokesperson for the group, Mr Joseph Hemans Asmah, expressed concern about the way fishing equipment have increased drastically under the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime, citing an instance where the price of outboard motors has increased from GH¢ 2,950 to GH¢5,400 on the market, representing a whopping 83% increase.

“Is President Mills and his government sure that we are moving forward in the right direction? The fishermen questioned.
They lambasted NDC government for importing 10,000 outboard motors to help the fishing industry in spite of the fact that officials at the ministry of food and agriculture were aware that there are over 12,000 canoes operating in the country.

The leader of the group indicated that President Mills made the sale of premix and pair trawling campaign issues during the last election but has failed to act on his words since the practice of pair trawling has worsened.

Mr Asmah challenged government officials who claimed the practice has been banned to visit them and see things for themselves.

The leader disclosed that landing beach committee members have totally disregarded the approved price of premix fuel of GH¢ 2.48p per gallon, and are now selling it at GH¢ 2.70p per gallon throughout the region while officials in the region have paid deaf ears to the practice.

“Premix is sold by landing beach members to all manner of persons who in turn resell it at a cut throat price of GH¢4 per gallon while the sale of the product in drums is being sold at GH¢240 instead of GH¢124, an increase of 93.55%.
The group said they strongly believed that the man to wrestle power from the NDC’s slow but sure mismanagement and misdirection of the country’s economy is Nana Akufo-Addo, adding he is the man with the wherewithal to lift Ghanaians from the throes of poverty.

“After all President Mills needed the votes of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and People’s National Convention (PNC) to win the run-off by the slightest of margins in the country’s political history”, they added.