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Vice President John Dramani Mahama has denied accusations that the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) programme meant to bridge the development gap between the northern and southern belts is a guised thievery of the Northern Development Fund set up in 2008 during the Kufuor administration. �No! Nobody�s plan was stolen. It was a fundamental plan and vision of President Mills that we have SADA today,� the Vice President declared. Mr. Mahama who launched an afforestation and reclamation programme in Bolgatanga on Friday as part of the SADA programme said the Northern Development Fund (NDF) which had defects has been corrected by SADA. �The Northern Development Fund was a reaction to the flood situation � the perennial flood situation that have taken place as a result of the tributaries of the White Volta bursting their banks every rainy season,� he explained. But in 2008, according to John Mahama, the NDC�s manifesto clearly stipulated that the NDF was not an adequate process of handling the major issues bedeviling the progress of the northern belt; hence the creation of the SADA �We wrote in our manifesto that under the government of President Mills , the NDC will set up the SADA that is an authority, an institution [and] an organization that is a permanent vehicle for carrying out programmes and projects over a 20 year period to ensure that the economic opportunities of the savannah zone of this country will equal that of the Southern part of Ghana.� He went on to parry off charges that SADA is a stolen version of the Northern Development Fund which had seed money of 25 million Ghana cedis when it was passed by Parliament in 2008. The afforestation project is aiming at growing five million trees in a year across the savannah belt which spans the upper east, Bono Ahafo and Volta regions.