Coop Association Seeks Gov't Help In Dispute With Cocoa Company

Akim Oda, (Eastern Region) 13 Sept.,

The Akim Oda society of the Ghana Co-operative Marketing Association (GCMA) has appealed to the government to intervene in its dispute with the Produce Buying Company over the ownership of cocoa sheds in the district. This follows the ejection on Tuesday of the GCMA by the police from a shed it had recovered from the PBC. Speaking to the Ghana News Agency at Akim Oda, Opanin Kwame Amaning, President of the GCMA said the police, under the command of Mr. Salifu Amadu, the Akim Oda divisional crime officer, ejected them from the shed. Recounting events leading to the ejection, he said the assets of the association and other 14 buying agencies were forfeited to the state and vested in the COCOBOD in 1984. ''However by the statute law revision act of 1996 (Act 516), the COCOBOD was asked to return the association's assets'', he said. Opanin Amaning said since then, the association has had several correspondence with both the COCOBOD and the PBC on the return of the GCMA's assets but their demands have not rpt not received any favourable response. He said because it has no place to store its cocoa, the GCMA in August this year, decided to use ''minimum'' force to recover one of its 10 sheds from the PBC.