Former Municipal and District Chief Executives (MDCEs) who served under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in the Upper East Region have called on Dr. Bryan Acheampong, a former Minister for Food and Agriculture, to retract and publicly apologize for what they describe as “reckless and misleading” comments accusing them of hoarding fertilizer meant for farmers during the 2024 farming season.
Addressing a press conference in Bolgatanga on Friday, the former DCE for Builsa South, Daniel Kwame Gariba, who read a statement on behalf of his colleagues, said the allegations made by Dr. Acheampong were “false, unfounded, and an unfortunate attempt to malign our reputation and the integrity of the Akufo-Addo administration.”
Dr. Acheampong, during a recent campaign tour in the Upper West region, was captured in a viral video claiming that all fertilizer under the government’s Dry Spell Intervention Programme was dispatched months before the December 2024 general elections, but MDCEs allegedly hoarded the inputs for personal gain.
However, the former Chief Executives insist that the timeline and data from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture contradict Dr. Acheampong’s claims. They explained that the official allocation letter for the fertilizer distribution was issued on November 27, 2024, barely two weeks before the elections.
“Only about 5% of the total allocation reached the districts during the week of the elections, making it impossible to carry out any meaningful distribution,” the statement read.
According to the former DCEs, records show that deliveries to districts such as Builsa South, Binduri, Bolgatanga, Talensi, and Bongo took place between November 27 and December 10, 2024, with most receiving limited quantities of fertilizer and maize far below the number of farmers registered.
They cited the case of Binduri District, which registered 45,000 farmers but received only 3,000 bags of fertilizer, noting that distributing such limited quantities a few days before the elections would have caused confusion rather than helped farmers.
The former MDCEs also questioned the logic of Bryan Acheampong’s allegations, asking how all districts across the regions of northern could have simultaneously decided to hoard or smuggle fertilizer.
“Was it a coincidence that all the 15 constituencies in the Upper East Region, the six in the North East, and the eleven in the Upper West Region could not distribute the fertilizer? The truth is that the inputs arrived too late and in insufficient quantities,” they argued.
They further described Dr. Acheampong’s comments as “malicious” and politically motivated, saying the former minister was fully aware of the challenges that delayed the implementation of the Dry Spell Initiative.
The group reaffirmed their commitment to integrity and accountability, emphasizing that they served their districts faithfully under the Akufo-Addo administration.
“We will not sit quietly while falsehoods are peddled to undermine our reputation or the good work we collectively did under the Akufo-Addo administration,” they declared.
The former MDCEs concluded by demanding an immediate retraction and public apology from Dr. Bryan Acheampong and urged the public and the media to treat his comments “with the contempt they deserve.”
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Joshua Asaah|Bolgatanga
