Central Region voted on occupational lines -Kojo Mbir

The anti-Premix corruption crusader and former member of the National Premix Committee, Mr. Kojo Mbir, has called on Ghanaians to stop accusing the people of Central Region of voting on tribal lines in the just ended elections.

According to him, the region votes on occupational lines and not tribal lines, arguing that if the region was tribal, it would not have voted for President John Agyekum Kufuor in two straight elections in 2000 and 2004.

In an interview with The Chronicle on Friday, Mbir explained that Central Region voted for Prof. John Evans Atta Mills because the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) destroyed their main occupation -fishing, which has been crippled by poor management of premix fuel distribution, coupled with massive corruption in the sector.

Again, he said, the NPP had failed to clamp down on pair trawling, a new development which was fast degrading the sea bed to the detriment of the local fishermen. Although this practice has long been banned along Ghana's territorial waters, government has not been up to the task to fully discourage pair-Trawlers from plying their trade in our waters.

Mr. Mbir, therefore, asked Ghanaians to refrain from wrongly labelling the people of the Central region, and rhetorically asked whether "the Ashanti Region has voted for Prof. Mills before? People should stop saying that Central Region voted on tribal lines. When the region voted for President Kufuor in two successive elections, did anybody complain?" he asked this reporter.

source : chronicle