My outfit has no record on cocoa diversion — AG

Page 14, June 24, 2010
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah

THE Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu has told Parliament that her outfit had no record about the diversion of 600 bags of sealed cocoa beans, which was meant for export, from the Western Region to Asabidie, a village in the Ofoase/Ayirebi Constituency in the Eastern Region.
The minister who was answering questions on the issue, therefore asked that the question might be directed to the minister of the interior since the matter might now be in the hands of the police.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ofoase/Ayirebi, Mr David Oppon-Kusi, who posed the question wanted to know about the status of the case, which was reported to the police by the youth of the village.
He explained that people were beginning to read all sorts of meanings into the case as a result of the lack of information about how far the matter had been dealt with since it was reported to the police some months ago.
Answering the question, Mr Mould such case had not been referred to the personnel for advice.
“Madam Speaker, it may be possible that the police are still investigating the matter and since it had not come to us, the question should be directed to the Minister of the Interior”, she suggested.
In another development, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Hanna Tetteh told the House that her ministry’s objective to promote value addition and agro processing was aimed at addressing the problem of post harvest losses and the perennial glut, especially of tomatoes and other vegetables, fruits and food items.
She said that was the surest way of stabilising process and incomes of farmers.
Answering a question posed by the MP for Chiana/Paga, Mr Leo Alowe Kabah, she said it was in line with that objective that the government had revamped the erstwhile Pwalugu Tomato Factory, now known as the Northern Star Tomato Factory.
She said the revamping of the factory had made it fully operational and now had the capacity to fully run and process tomatoes throughout the tomato season, at a minimum production capacity of 250 metric tones per day.
Ms Tetteh said the ministry this year provided the factory with the necessary capital to enable it purchase the tomatoes from farmers for processing adding that tomato farmers in the area did not go through the unfortunate situation of tomato glut as happened in the past.
She explained that the ministry was collaborating with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to increase the production of tomatoes to feed the factory during the next season.