The Minority in Parliament is calling on the CEO of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Joseph Boahen Aidoo, to render an apology to the former President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama.
According to the minority, Mr. Aidoo told a deliberate falsehood in his desperate attempt to justify the rip-off that the governing party has meted out to hard-working cocoa farmers regarding Ghana’s 2023/24 cocoa forward sales.
In a press release issued on Tuesday, November 21, the Minority, led by the Ranking Member on the Food and Agriculture Committee in Parliament, demands that the COCOBOD CEO erred when he questioned Mr. Mahama’s understanding of how the producer price of cocoa is determined.
The release also stated that Minor maintains that the former President was accurate in his criticism of the recent announcement of a GH¢1,308 producer price per bag of cocoa.
Per the statement submitted to Parliament by COCOBOD as part of processes for the approval of the syndicated loan for cocoa purchases for the 2023/24 crop season, it was disclosed that only 36.2% of our cocoa for this season was sold forward and used as collateral to secure the $800 million syndicated loan,” portions of the statement said.
They concluded that the COCOBOD CEO is not competent to challenge the NDC flagbearer on issues related to the Cocoa sector as well as he lied to cocoa farmers and the entire nation, however, he owes President Mahama, hardworking cocoa farmers and the entire nation an unqualified apology.