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12.11.2004 Politics

Unit committee to be abolished, says Imoro

12.11.2004 LISTEN
By GNA

Kumbungu (N/R), Nov. 12, GNA - Mr Mohammed Imoro, Convention People's Party (CPP) Parliamentary Candidate for the Kumbungu Constituency, has said if voted to power he would work for the abolition of the Unit Committee Concept.

He explained that the Unit Committees were not useful to the country's democratic development process.

"The NDC government formed the Unit Committees to help the Party to continue to win elections. They were more or less party organs to ensure that the NDC stayed in power."

Mr Imoro was speaking at a Constituency forum held at Kumbungu in the Tolon/Kumbungu District on Thursday for Parliamentary Candidates in Constituency.

Prince Imoro Andani of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Alhaji Yakubu Imoro Kakpagu of the NDC took part in the debate. On HIV/AIDS, Mr Imoro said the CPP would create jobs for women and the youth to help reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS.

He criticized the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) programme, saying "giving out loans to women is wasteful. We should rather create meaningful jobs for them to contribute effectively to the welfare of their families and the national economy.''

Prince Andani lauded the credit assistance the Government was giving to women and said the programme had helped women to improve their businesses and enhanced their living conditions.

On Local government and decentralisation, he said it had brought governance to the doorstep of the people and noted that without a vibrant unit committee structure, decentralization would not be effective, especially at the grassroots level.

Mr Andani said he would collaborate with NGOs and government agencies such as the Non-Formal Education Division to design appropriate methods and messages to support the education of the people in the communities to reduce the spread of the disease.

He said he would involve the local people in the fight against diseases and encourage the monitoring of community-based organization that had received financial assistance to carry out HIV/AIDS activities. Alhaji Kakpagu, said without local government, there would not be any central government and pledged his government's support for the decentralization process.

He accused the NPP government of abusing the local government concept and said if the NDC were voted to power it would streamline the process. On micro financing, he said the period for the repayment of loans given to women groups was short and called for its extension to give the women ample time to raise money to pay off their loans.

He said he would form a taskforce in all communities in the Constituency to embark on HIV/AIDS education to effect a behavioural change among the people.

All the candidates, in their closing statements, called on the people to remain united and maintain the peace in the area during and after the December elections. They urged the electorate to vote for a candidate they believed would best serve their interests and bring development to the area. The Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) organized the forum with financial support from Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) an NGO and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

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