President Mahama has stated that his administration will ensure that anybody arrested for diverting cocoa inputs such as fertilizer meant to be distributed free of charge to farmers to enrich themselves would be prosecuted.
“You will go to jail if you are caught selling cocoa inputs, such as fertilizer, which are supposed to be given free to the poor cocoa farmers to enhance their productivity,” the first gentleman of the land warned at a mammoth public gathering on Thursday.
This was when he cut the sod for the commencement of the 22-kilometer Ataase Nkwanta-Owusukrom feeder road project in the Adanse South District of the Ashanti Region as part of the government’s cocoa roads programme.
He charged DCEs, cocoa farmers and the public to always report people who would attempt to divert the cocoa inputs in order to enrich themselves at the expense of the poor cocoa farmers so that the law would ruthlessly deal with them.
According to the president, Ghanaians by nature usually don’t like reporting people who breach the law, urging the citizenry to be patriotic and cultivate the habit of always exposing miscreants for the law to deal with them.
Ghana, he said, would have developed effectively by now had the people mustered courage to report law breakers and selfish people to the law enforcement agencies to deal with them in the past, noting that it is not proper for people to milk the state.
President Mahama stressed on the significant contributions the cocoa sector has made towards the transformation of the country over the years, pledging his government’s commitment to support the cocoa sector, notably farmers, so that they can live better lives.
He said as part of the cocoa roads project initiated by his administration, government would set aside a staggering 150 million dollars to be channelled into the construction of roads in cocoa growing areas.
According to him, the completion of the 22-kilometer stretch of road from Ataase Nkwanta to Owusukrom would help make the transportation of food products to the market easy for farmers, adding that the New Edubiase town roads were also under construction.
He said it was the objective of his government to make sure that all roads in the cocoa producing areas in the country are given a facelift in order to make life better for the people, stressing that the NDC government values the efforts of farmers in the development of the state.
The Chief of Adanse Dompoase, Okofo Sobin Kan II, decried the devastating effects of the power crisis on Ghanaians.
He observed with great concern, how the power challenge and the rapid increase in prices of petroleum products by the government were collapsing businesses and making life extremely unbearable for the citizenry, urging government to sit up and address the challenges.
Okofo Kan II assured President Mahama and the NDC administration of the unflinching support of the populace, appealing to the people to always support the government with fervent prayers so that government could deliver to enhance the lives of the citizenry.
The Ashanti Regional Minister, Peter Anarfi Mensah, said apart from the major road projects, the NDC government is also making a headway in the provision of drinking water and contributing its quota to the transformation of the state.
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