COCOBOD guest house saga: John Mahama lying - Boahen Aidoo

The Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, is insisting that the previous management under Dr. Stephen Opuni constructed a new Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) Research Station Guest House in Bole at the cost of GH¢ 5.2million.

The guest house which has been the subject of contention between the New Patriotic Party(NPP) administration and opposition National Democratic Congress(NDC) according to the COCOBOD CEO, is not an old guest house as claimed by the office of the former President Mr. John Dramani Mahama.

He wondered how come an old guest house could be renovated at such an outrageous cost to the State.

“If the NDC members are claiming that is an old building it will be difficult for me as the CEO to pay the remaining GH¢1.2million balance owed the contractor. It will be difficult to pay the balance. The building in contention is new. It’s an execute mansion,” Mr Boahen Aidoo stated.

It would be recalled that office of the former President John Dramani Mahama in a statement issued by his aide, Joyce Bawa Mogtari, clarified that the guest house in question, the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) Research Station Guest House, has been in existence since 1975, and could not possibly have been constructed during the tenure of President Mahama.

The statement also described the accusation by the COCOBOD Chief Executive Officer, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, as falling into “a regrettable pattern of false and inaccurate information.”

But speaking on Oman FM’s political analysis programme “Boiling Point” Mr Boahen Aidoo maintained that former President is not being truthful to the good people of Ghana.

Mr Boahen Aidoo explained that he was informed by some staff of COCOBOD that they wanted to construct a guest house at Cocoa Research Institute at Tafo in the Eastern Region to accommodate both foreign and Ghanaian researchers who come to the Institute to conduct various research works, but the former CEO of COCOCOD, Dr Stephen Opuni opposed it when it was put before the Board for deliberations.

Surpringly, he said COCOBOD ended up building the guest house at Bole and furnished it with modern facilities including Jacuzzi.

Mr. Boahen Aidoo was of the view that former President John Dramani Mahama may have influenced the award of a contract to construct a guest house at Bole in the Northern Region to “enable him enjoy comfortable holidays during visits to his constituency.”

“We don’t fix Jacuzzi’s in the guest house for our researchers, but this particular guest house in contention is a four bedroom executive mansion with quarters and has Jacuzzi’s fix in them,” he said.