Government blamed for low shea butter prices

Accra, Aug. 24, GNA - Dr Alfred Sugri Tia, National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Nalerigu, on Tuesday said although the Government had increased the price of cocoa thrice since it came to power it had neglected the shea nut and shea butter industry in the Northern Region.

He said although the Government could not directly increase the prices of those items yet it could have facilitated or created the environment for the produce to be bought at a good price. He said the Government was being insensitive to the plight of farmers in the three northern regions, which were predominantly agricultural, adding that the price of fertilizer had more than doubled during the three-and-a-half years administration of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Government.

Dr Tia, who was endorsed by acclamation as the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentary Candidate for the Nalerigu Constituency, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Accra that if the economic problems confronting the North were seen as being solved it could partly be an encouraging factor to stop the "Kayaye" drift to the South, especially Accra and Kumasi, to become victims of rape and to be afflicted with diseases.

He said the poor nature of the road networks in the three northern regions was making life unbearable to the people and called on them to vote massively for the NDC, come December elections to restore lost hopes.

Dr Tia said although the Government had promised the people that it would construct the Walewale-Gambaga road since 2001 it was now that gutters and culverts were being constructed.

The earlier promises and the half-hearted attempt now to construct the road were being made to lure the people to vote for the NPP into to power, he said.

He said the NDC was the only Party that could take care of the interests and aspirations of the people in the Mamprugu Traditional area and urged others from the other constituencies to vote for the NDC to return it to power.