Minority spewing lies to discredit gov't efforts in cocoa sector- Fiifi Boafo

The office of the Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo is accusing Minority in Parliament for deliberately throwing dust into the eyes of Ghanaians so that they do not realize the interventions President Akufo-Addo's administration is making in the cocoa sector.

Speaking on Oman FM's National Agenda Show, on Tuesday, Fiifi Boafo, who is managing the office of the CEO, described as pathetic the magnitude of lies which were spewed by the Minority at its press conference on Monday.

He expressed shock as to why Members of the August House which is the house of records could be so disingenuous by churning out false information about the cocoa sector into the public domain.

"How pathetic can our Members of Parliament be," he said.

The Minority on Monday criticized the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government for taken what it calls insensitive actions that have worsened the plight of cocoa farmers in the country.

It mentioned the discontinuation of contracts on 231 cocoa roads, the replacement of the free fertilization programme with a subsidized arrangement, coupled with the inadequate and discriminative supply of chemicals to cocoa farmers as some of the insensitive actions taken by the government.

They also claimed that Akufo-Addo's administration has dismissed some 20 staff of COCOBOD and replaced them with those on retirement.

But reacting to the issues raised at the press conference, Mr. Fiifi Boafo, said he was surprised that the National Democratic Congress which created the mess at the COCOBOD could now turn around to accuse a government that is working hard to improve the living conditions of cocoa farmers in the country.

He rejected claims that COCOBOD under the current CEO Mr. Joseph Boahen Aidoo has dismissed 20 staff and replaced them with those on retirement.

"They told Ghanaians that 20 COCOBOD staff were sacked and replaced with those on retirement. This is the biggest lie”, he said.

"To me only three people that is one Dr. Oppong and the deputy CEO in charge of Operations and well as the deputy CEO in charge of Finance were on retirement and were brought back. And these are political appointments. Nobody has been sacked so where did the Minority get their figures from. They should tell us," he explained.

Touching on the road issue, Fiifi Boafo noted that new management upon assumption of office realized that the previous administration had abused a policy introduced by erstwhile John Kufuor administration to improve cocoa roads.

He said COCOBOD virtually abandoned its core business and rather took over the role of Ministry Roads and Highway by awarding contracts for the construction of roads, which were not in cocoa growing areas.

According to him, COCOBOD under Dr Stephen Opuni signed road contracts to the tune of $5.4million and was even queried by the Central Tender Committee.

In his view the NDC did that deliberately just to loot state resources.

Story By: Michael Creg Afful

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