Birim-South cocoa farmers demand 2005/06 bonuses due them

Ayirebi (E/R), Nov. 21, GNA - A section of cocoa farmers at Ayirebi in the Birim South District of the Eastern Region, are demanding bonuses due them for the 2005/06 main cocoa season. The farmers have vowed to collect the bonuses running into several millions of cedis, before this year's bonuses are paid. Six key cocoa farmers in the area, representing their colleagues who were in the offices of the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Akim Oda claimed that the various purchasing clerks had cheated them for far too long.

They claimed that the purchasing clerks' action was meant to frustrate them in collecting their bonuses and appealed to the government to step in to find out what was wrong and why those bonuses had been allegedly diverted. When the GNA contacted one Evelyn, a purchasing clerk at the Ayirebi OLAM Cocoa Company, she could not produce any record to show payments made on last year's bonuses. 21 Nov. 07