Ms Ophelia Koomson, the Birim Central Municipal Chief Executive, has appealed to National Democratic Congress (NDC) supporters to close their ranks and unite towards retaining power in 2012. "We should guard against petty squabbles and acts that may tear us apart and rather unite to prevent our political opponents from cashing on any disunity on our part to infiltrate our ranks," she said. Ms Koomson, who was interacting with NDC supporters at Akyem Oda, appealed to the supporters to step up their educational campaigns in the communities on the achievements of the government to prevent their opponents from "selling" negative propaganda to the rural communities. "Let the people know about the STX Housing project, the introduction of free exercise books and school uniforms, increase in the capitation grant and the expansion of the school feeding programme and the gradual phasing out of schools under trees among others," she said. Ms Koomson told the party faithful to start campaigning for the 2012 election now and not to wait for the last hour and also to choose knowledgeable people to be polling agents. She advised them to educate their supporters on the new biometric voters' registration to be introduced for next year's election and to encourage all qualified voters to register when the exercise begins. Ms Koomson appealed to party members to use the appropriate channels to seek redress to any grievances and to refrain from washing "our dirty linen in public." Mr Abdul Jalilu, Birim Central Municipal Micro Finance and Small Loans Centre (MSALOC) Co-ordinator, briefed the people on how the loans are disbursed. He said the government had put in place stringent measures to ensure that those who might benefit from the loan facility pay back on schedule to enable the facility to be extended to others. He said GH¢ 80 million granted to people by the previous government are still outstanding and stressed that the facility is a loan and not money to be shared among party members. Source: GNA