Mahama deserves praise for development in the cocoa sector – Eric Opoku

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) spokesperson on cocoa affairs, Eric Opoku has said former President John Dramani Mahama should be eulogized for his significant contribution in the development and improvement of Ghana’s cocoa sector.

He said unlike the Akufo-Addo administration which has failed to listen to the plight of cocoa farmers, former President John Dramani Mahama saw the need to fix cocoa roads from the rural communities to the urban communities.

“In fact, if there is anybody to commend for having contributed significantly towards the development and improvement in the cocoa sector in this country, [Ex] President Mahama should be the one to be mentioned. It is rather unfortunate that as top politicians, as we engage our people, we intend to use some of these abusive words without any evidence to demonstrate that what we are saying is anchored on facts. [Former] President Mahama, while in office, realized that the cocoa farmers contributed to the country’s development and so it was important for us to fix the cocoa roads from the rural communities to the urban communities. But the [NPP] government has failed to hear the cries of cocoa farmers. We have always asked for cocoa audit reports but it has not been provided,” he told CitiTV.

The Akufo-Addo government suspended work on over 230 cocoa road projects in 2017 for an audit due to corruption concerns.

They alleged that the 230 cocoa roads, budgeted at GHc3.5 billion under the NDC administration were ballooned with an amount of GHc5 billion and other corruption allegations which triggered the need for an audit.

Meanwhile, John Dramani Mahama is demanding an audit report on cocoa roads project from COCOBOD.