The Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Mavis Hawa Koomson, has called on the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, to desist from politicising the closed fishing season for canoe and artisanal fisherfolk.
According to the sector minister, the fishing community will not benefit immensely from the exercise if the policy is politicised.
The former president recently pledged to exempt artisanal fishermen from the closed season should he emerge victorious in the upcoming December 7 elections.
Speaking to the media after a stakeholder engagement in Accra, Hawa Koomson stated that the NDC flagbearer’s decision to exclude artisanal fishermen from the exercise is not feasible.
“I hear the former president going around to say that when he comes back, he is going to abolish the closed season. I let them [the fishermen] know that it is a law. So I did not even create it. It was the NDC that made the law. And they observed it in 2016.
“I am only continuing what is there because it has become a policy. I want to plead with the former president that he has been in the seat before and he is a former president. When he is before the people and making utterances, he should be very careful because things that you cannot do, you don’t promise them.”
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