Kwame Baffoe aka Abronye DC
The Bono Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwame Baffoe popularly called Abronye DC, has taken on former President John Mahama, accusing him of peddling falsehoods about the cocoa sector under President Nana Akufo-Addo.
Addressing a press conference in response to Mr. Mahama’s recent comments about the ‘health’ of Ghana’s cocoa sector, Abronye says it is false that contractors with genuine claims about their contracts issued by the previous government are not being paid.
According to him, contrary to Mr. Mahama’s claims, GH?9,603,917.55 was paid to cocoa road contractors during the 2016/2017 cocoa season.
He noted that “GH?496,872,500.00 was then paid during the 2017/2018 cocoa season. During the 2018/2019 season, the amount went up to GH?550,983,450.00 million and so far in the present 2019/2020 season, the figure stands at GH?123,639,516 million.”
This brings the total amount paid by this government for cocoa road contracts issued by the previous government to well over a billion Ghana cedis; the exact figure being GH?1,181,099,383.55, he added.
Misinformation
He added that instead of admitting to his failure to fulfil the promises he made to cocoa farmers and cocoa farming communities during his presidency; the mismanagement and misapplication of funds which he oversaw and his government’s lack of innovative capacity to resolve the issues of the cocoa sector, the former president is rather engaging in a “trumpian” style spreading of misinformation.
According to him, “this is particularly true of the statements he has made about the construction of cocoa roads and on which bases he has launched several attacks on the current government.’
“He has clearly decided to launch these attacks at any opportunity he gets to address the chiefs and good people of the cocoa regions,”
“It has, therefore, become imperative for me as chairman of the NPP in a cocoa region, to address the press and set the records straight. As such, aided by facts and figures I will give you a true account of what happened at the time of his government and what is happening now, as far as cocoa roads are concerned” he said.
According to him, “let no one be deceived by the claim of former President John Mahama and NDC communicators that the present government stopped absolutely all cocoa road projects started by the previous government. This is another blatant falsehood.”
“The suspension which was imposed was not a blanket suspension on all the contracts, as such, several roads at different stages of construction were allowed to continue until completion in 2017 and thereafter.”
BY Melvin Tarlue