Minister's Man Swindles 7,000 Farmers

The scandal-prone Regional Minister, Mr. Isaac Edumadze, has personally been implicated for his role in promoting a man to his constituents at Ajumako who has bolted with the savings of 7,000 peasant farmers on the promise of giving them bank loans for their farms.

The minister finally admitted to Chronicle after weeks of persistent tracking, that Alhaji Rahama, the man he opened a constituency office of the NPP for, to promote a cooperative -Rahama Cooperative- has shown a clean pair of heels after collecting the cash from some locals.

But the poor peasant farmers have no one to fight for them, as the bullying Edumadze is a feared force in the area.

Trouble began when the minister who is also a Member of Parliament, put his considerable weight behind a farmers cooperative by personally inaugurating it some time last year at a ceremony at Ajumako Enyan in rural Central region.

They were promised a substantial capital on condition that they show commitment by making contributions for seed capital themselves by depositing up to ?50,000 each.

Because of the stature of Edumadze as the president's nominated representative, the scheme caught fire and, at some point, the contributions were upped to ?70,000 a figure that involved considerable sacrifice which sometimes took up to a year to raise in those parts.

A bank account was opened at Enyan Denkyira Rural Bank where the sums were deposited and later moved to the National Investment Bank at Cape Coast.

As the time for the 'harvesting' of their investment came and passed, it was discovered that Alhaji's 'legs had become shorter in the area'- in other words, he was becoming less and less visible, until finally, all visits to the NPP office and his house established that he had disappeared.

Edumadze has gotten away with so much mess in the past that the farmers felt that he is now above the law and no one could do anything to him. Desperation set in, followed by feelings of desolation.

Chronicle investigators were implored to 'come over and save us'.

Circumstantial evidence of ministerial complicity was raised in the course of Chronicle surveillance and investigations following these concerns from the poor hapless farmers. It was detected that one of the signatories to the bank account was no other than the trusted personal assistant of Edumadze, Mr. Ishaque Essilifie.

The others are Mr. Kojo Odoom Ampiah Biney, the presiding member of Ajumako district assembly and Nana Nketsia Afful, men who are vulnerable to the Hercules of the Central region, notorious for physical manhandling.

'419 RACKET'

One of the affected farmers described the entire episode as a fast 419 operation saying, "that RAHAMA was founded to take away the little that we have, and we have no one to turn to."

Edumadze sent a pliant assistant to Chronicle when he heard that the paper was digging the earth around the region, but when he was pressed for answers, he displayed ignorance on many issues, until the minister reluctantly took time to meet this reporter personally.

Edumadze debunked the assertion that the society was founded to dupe the farmers. Instead, he said, they had ?48 million from the farmers which was still intact and had been transferred from Enyan Denkyira Rural Bank, where it was first lodged to the National Investment Bank (NIB) at Cape Coast.

But Chronicle sources close to the farmers suggested that about ?100 million was realized from the farmers' contribution.

He also disputed the number of farmers who registered with the cooperative saying, "They were only 4,800 farmers" and not about 7,000 as suggested.

However, he admitted that he was aware that beside the main registration, Alhaji Rahama had registered other people even outside his constituency and had since vamoosed with their money.

"In fact for sometime now, we have not seen the Rahama man, because he has vamoosed from the people, he was going around duping people," he confessed, but did not explain how a whole minister in whom the president had reposed such trust, could personally meddle with what is a private undertaking by an 'uncertified' businessman.

Investigations by this paper has revealed that only ?10 million of the said amount went to the Enyan Denkyira Bank. Chronicle learnt that the money was first shifted from the rural bank to SSB Bank, Cape Coast.

The minister offered the NPP's former constituency office to be used as office and followed with massive promotion through the district assembly, even when insiders had raised grave concerns about the use of the assembly as a conduit.

The role of RAHAMA in the area, according to sources, has lowered the morale of the NPP in the district.

Chronicle gathered that at a certain stage, the assembly held meetings to discuss Rahama, without the knowledge of the DCE of the area, under the orders of the minister.

However, Edumadze maintained that they had secured a ?500 million loan from the NIB which they intended to disburse to the farmers in December last year.

The date was rescheduled on the explanation that if the money were released to the farmers at the time, being a Christmas week, the farmers would have frittered away the money for the holidays.

He further pointed out "in January when we were about to disburse the money, the then DCE drew our attention to the requirement to seek the approval of the ministries of Local Government and Rural Development and of Finance because it had now become a district assembly thing.

But when the special assistant to the minister for Local Government was reached for his comment on the issue, he said he was not aware of that.

A source close to Chronicle told the paper that they find it very difficult to see the link between what was a farmer's society to a district assembly fund.

Meanwhile, when asked to explain the entire RAHAMA saga, Edumadze said that he first met Alhaji Rahama at Twifo Praso, where he inaugurated a similar farmers' society founded by Alhaji Rahama.

He said after the ceremony, he realized that it was a good thing and therefore he prevailed upon him to organise it in his constituency.

According to Edumadze, he therefore offered Alhaji Rahama all the necessary support.

He said the money collected was first lodged at the Enyan Denkyira Rural Bank and later shifted to the SSB Bank.

According to him, negotiation was ongoing with the SSB Bank for a loan when government took the decision to lodge all the assembly's common fund with the NIB.

However in response to Chronicle's inquiries, NIB confirmed that the association indeed opened an account with its branch at Cape Coast last year and has since applied for a loan through the Ajumako Enyan Essiam district assembly.

But the bank was evasive as to whether indeed they have granted the ?500 million as claimed by Edumadze.