President Akufo-Addo (M), Ruth Smith Adjei (3rd from left), Director, West African Markets and other government officials during the tour of Blue Skies Company
President Akufo-Addo has advised Ghanaians not to bring back former President John Mahama, saying he would run the country down.
He believes Mahama and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) cannot continue from where he left off but would run the country aground when given the opportunity to steer the affairs of the country once again.
He has, therefore, asked Ghanaians to once again reject Mahama and the NDC in the upcoming December 2024 general elections.
This was when he visited the premises of Blue Skies Limited at Doboro near Nsawam yesterday.
According to him, a vote for the former President would undermine the progress achieved during his administration and jeopardise the nation’s trajectory.
He took the opportunity to once again endorse Vice President Bawumia, who is the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate in the upcoming elections, describing him as more credible and efficient than Mahama.
“Also, when the time is up for the voting, our job is simple. The person I defeated and my work since I took over seems not to please him, I cannot hand over power to such a person. He will destroy whatever we have done when he comes.
“I am pleading with you to vote for the person I have worked with for the past seven and half years. I have faith in him and I know that he will come and continue the work I have begun,” the President said to a spontaneous applause from party supporters who had also gone there.
He, therefore, asked Ghanaians who have not registered to go and do so since limited registration has started, saying, “This is because your right to vote is your power.”
It follows the Electoral Commission (EC) decision to start a nationwide limited registration exercise for persons who have turned 18 years. The exercise began yesterday, May 7 and is expected to end on May 27.
On their part, management of Blue Skies Products Ghana Limited, producers of Blue Skies fruit juice, appealed to President Akufo-Addo to help deal with activities of land guards and illegal sand winners in their operational areas.
According to them, these illegal activities in the area were affecting the cultivation of pineapple, which served as the main raw materials for their operations.
General Manager of the company, Ms. Janet Lutterodt, who raised the concern during the President’s visit, said the appeal had become imperative due to the negative impact of the activities on their operations.
Apart from the illegal activities of sand winners and land guards, she said the continuous sale of farmlands to estate developers was also hampering the expansion of their outgrower farms.
“The land tenure issue is an issue that is plaguing this community and also its impact on pineapple production was adverse. Today you have land and then tomorrow you don’t. You have a land, you have all your papers intact and then the next day, a chief has sold the land and before you know, you are in litigation,” she emphasised.
Ms. Lutterodt explained that the company lost its 200 acres of mango plantation due to such activities.
In addition to the land challenges, she said the company was also facing some challenges with the new directive which mandated the company to put in place a Letter of Commitment (LOC) before exports.
President Akufo-Addo pledged to ensure that the operations of the company are not affected by such negative activities.
He said his government would put in place the necessary measures to ensure that the company expanded and also served the interest of the community.
The President, while addressing a durbar of staff of the company after his interaction with management, expressed his gratitude to the workers for their commitment to the development of the company.
He said government had put in place necessary arrangements and policies that would help develop agriculture in the country, stressing that those arrangements would be extended to the company to enable them continue with their operations.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent