NDC chairman swindles farmers and goes into hiding

The Yendi constituency Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is alleged to have swindled a number of farmers and has since gone into hiding, MyNewsGh.com reports.

Alhaji Ibrahim Yaghu according to information gathered by this portal, somewhere in 2016 told his victims that he was going to facilitate for them to acquire tricycles on hire purchase from the defunct Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA).

In a petition jointly signed by the aggrieved farmers from Nakpachee in the Yendi Municipality to the current Managers of the Northern Development Authority (NDA), he demanded that they make part payment which they did and till date have neither received the items no a refund of their money.

“We, the undersigned petitioners are indigenes of various communities in the Yendi Municipal, who in 2016, paid various amounts through directed agents to the NDC chairman, Alhaji Ibrahim Yaghu, as deposits to enable us secure tricycles (Motor Kings) from the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority for our farming activities. However, this intention never came through since 2016 and any attempt to retrieve the monies proved futile. The chairman has demonstrated enough unwillingness to return our hard sweat monies. Sir, we would like to draw your attention to the happenings in your office by your predecessors through his agent and also to prevail on you to assist us in retrieving our monies or the items. We count on your cooperation and urgent attention”, the petition sighted by MyNewsGh.com read in part.

This also comes at a time the Northern Development Authority has alleged that some marketing officers of Unik Savannah Limited, a private company, that was engaged to supply tricycles and motorbikes to some residents within the SADA zone perpetrated fraud on the then Savanna Accelerated Development Authority under a Public-Private Partnership arrangement.

SADA entered into a Private Public Partnership (PPP) with UNIK Savannah Limited for the procurement of 5,000 tricycles under the tricycle project at a cost of $9,500,000 in 2015. Out of the 5,000 tricycles that were imported, 3,000 were assembled, 2,239 were released and 732 left under harsh weather conditions with about 2,000 of the unassembled tricycles still in stock.

Following the detection of some irregularities around the operations of the company and the business arrangement, SADA Board referred the matter to the Economic and Organized Crimes Office (EOCO) for investigations.