The Director in Charge of Crop Services at the Agriculture Ministry, Seth Osei Akoto, says the trucks loaded with fertilizers meant for the Planting for Food and Jobs Programme in the Pru East District that were intercepted cannot be considered as smugglers yet.
The trucks were allegedly enroute to Burkina Faso with one thousand bags of fertilisers meant for the Planting for Food and Jobs Programme in Yeji.
The destination of the trucks was supposed to be Yeji, according to their waybills.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, Mr. Akoto the two trucks were not yet beyond Yeji and thus questioned the smuggling suspicions.
“When I checked, the goods hadn’t passed Yeji so we cannot say the goods are being smuggled beyond Ghana to Burkina Faso. for me specifically, I don’t think it is an issue.
When they are within Bono East Region and they haven’t crossed even to Savanah, why do you conclude that they are sending Fertiliser to Burkina Faso.”
The fertiliser is distributed by private firms that engage various transport companies.
The owner of Agyenkwa Enterprise, a fertiliser distribution outlet based in Yeji, Patrick Odieahun is currently in the grips of the Police helping with the investigation.
The smuggling problem
So far in 2019, Nkoransa South in the Bono East region and Asunafo North in the Ahafo Region have all recorded incidents of missing fertilizer under the Planting for Food and Jobs Programme.
The Asunafo North Municipal Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Eric Aduamah is being investigated over the disappearance of 14,497 bags of fertiliser valued at GHc 946,000.
In 2018, fertiliser worth about GHc600,000 meant for the Planting for Food and Jobs programme in the Sunyani went missing from a warehouse belonging to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
Seven workers of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in Sunyani were placed under investigation by the police.