By Alfred Adams
SONY DSC
Cocoa farmers at Anwia Nkwanta-Debiasem in the Enchi District of the Western Region are angry over the continuous cutting down of their cocoa trees to pave way for an electricity project on the orders of the Enchi District Assembly (EDA).
This has resulted in tension between the owners of the trees and the Enchi Assembly, following its decision not to pay for the number of the trees cut down.
A total of about 23,000 cocoa trees in the year 2011 were cut down when the electricity extension project was started. That was when the contractor working on the project begun cutting down the cocoa trees to mount electricity poles to the area.
The farmers recently dragged the Assembly and the contractor for the project, Rollicorn Company Limited (RCL), to the Legal Aid Board. The decision follows the failure of the two, particularly, the Enchi District Assembly, to pay compensation for the cocoa trees destroyed.
Surprisingly, the District Assembly and the contractor failed to honour the invitation. What has now incensed the farmers is the fresh cutting down of cocoa trees to begin a new phase of the electricity project, again without any compensation being paid them.
The farmers gave the name of the new contractor on the second phase of the project as Wilkings Electrical and Renewable Energy Contractors. One of the affected farmers, Opayin James Kwabena Domfeh, who walked up to the office of The Chronicle, lamented over the wanton destruction of their cocoa trees.
According to him, another set of about 11,000 cocoa trees have been cut down, which resulted in him confronting the contractor. But, to his surprise, the employers of the contractor reportedly told him that there was nothing they could do, since it was the Assembly which instructed them to cut down the trees.
Mr. Domfeh however said he had not read anywhere that properties destroyed to pave way for a project in the name of the Government of Ghana were not paid for. “We are devastated by this action to cut down our cocoa trees without compensation,” adding, “it is only in Ghana that this can be done.”
He continued: “How can you destroy what we use to feed our families and expect us to keep quiet. By the way, won’t we pay for electricity bills in the end? So why do you destroy our trees and tell us you won’t pay a pesewa for compensation? We have made noise over this over and over again, but no one seems to care.”
The electricity project is being sponsored by the Government of Ghana, under the Worthy Lamb Project. Under the project, a total of 107 communities and villages in the Enchi District are expected to be hooked onto the national grid.
The District Chief Executive (DCE), Oscar Larbi, confirmed the cutting down of the cocoa trees belonging to the farmers, and when he was contacted by The Chronicle, he explained why no compensation should be paid to the affected farmers.
According to him, the farmers agreed that their cocoa trees should be ‘sacrificed’ to pave way for the project. He added that a stakeholder conference was held with the farmers, where it was explained to them that their cocoa trees would be cut down as a result of the extension of electricity to their communities.
To that, the DCE explained to this reporter, the farmers voluntarily agreed. “So for the farmers to turn round and complain about the cutting down of their cocoa trees is news to me,” Oscar Larbi told this reporter.
According to the DCE, at the stakeholders’ conference, it was explained to the farmers that the Worthy Lamb Project did not factor compensation packages for cocoa trees to be cut down. He said the farmers who considered the electricity project as valuable, agreed that their cocoa trees should be cut down.
But the leader of the aggrieved farmers, however, told The Chronicle that the DCE was being economical with the truth. Opayin Domfeh told this reporter that there was no stakeholders’ conference where the farmers agreed to the cutting down of their cocoa trees in the name of the electricity project.
In a related development, information available to The Chronicle indicates that the electricity extension project to the communities, which was started in 2011, apparently to win political votes, was deserted immediately after the 2012 elections, raising questions about the rationale behind the project.
The contractor working on the project is believed to have deserted the project after the Enchi District Assembly terminated the contract on grounds of pilfering. Staff of the contractor were reported to have been caught stealing electrical devices earmarked for the project, which compelled the Assembly to terminate the contract. However, DCE Oscar Larbi has refused to confirm or deny the story.