The Minority Caucus in Parliament has called out the CEO of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Joseph Boahen Aidoo, for lies he peddled against former President John Dramani Mahama.
The group is demanding that the COCOBOD CEO renders an apology to the former president for the untruths he spoke against him regarding the cocoa forward sales.
It would be recalled that, shortly after the announcement of the farm-gate price of cocoa for the 2023/24 cocoa season, former President Mahama criticized government for shortchanging cocoa farmers by pegging the farm-gate price at a paltry GHS1,308 despite a 46-year record-high surge in the world market price.
Mr. Mahama opined that the cocoa farmers deserved far more of the international market price, than they were given by the government.
The CEO Joseph Boahen Aidoo, contradicted President Mahama and questioned his understanding of how the producer price of cocoa is determined claiming that the former President erroneously used $3,600 as the world market price to calculate the producer price.
However, in a press release issued on Tuesday, November 21, the Minority, led by the Ranking Member on the Food and Agriculture Committee in Parliament, stated that the COCOBOD CEO was wrong when he questioned Mr. Mahama’s understanding of how the producer price of cocoa is determined.
The Ranking Member, Eric Opoku declared that “it has now emerged that the CEO of COCOBOD told deliberate falsehood in his desperate attempt to justify the rip-off that the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government has meted out to our hard working cocoa farmers.”
He added that “according to documents submitted to Parliament by COCOBOD as part of processes for the approval of the syndicated loan for cocoa purchases for the 2023/24 crop season, it was disclosed that only 36.2% of our cocoa for this season was sold forward and used as collateral to secure the $800 million syndicated loan.”
The Minority believes Mahama was clearly accurate thus, demanding that Joseph Boahen Aidoo owes President Mahama, cocoa farmers and the entire nation an unqualified apology.