It’s a complete lie, no former MDCE gave fertilizer to girlfriends – former Builsa South DCE

Daniel Kwame Gariba, the former Builsa South District Chief Executive (DCE), has denied allegations that some former Municipal and District Chief Executives (MDCEs) in the Upper East Region withheld bags of fertilizer meant for farmers and instead shared them with their girlfriends.

On Friday, October 24, supporters of Dr Bryan Acheampong, a flagbearer aspirant of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), alleged at a press conference that some former DCEs hoarded a government sponsored fertilizer meant to cushion farmers and diverted the fertilizer to their girlfriends.

The supporters, who were responding to an earlier press conference by the former MDCEs, claimed that although the bags of fertilizer were released by Dr Bryan Acheampong, then Minister for Agriculture, months earlier in response to alleviating the impact of the dryspell, the MDCEs deliberately failed to distribute them for their own interests

The supporters said the actions of the MDCEs angered the masses and led to the embarrassing defeat the NPP suffered in the general election.

However, responding to the allegations on the Big Mike Breakfast Show, Daniel Gariba, who speaks for the former MDCEs on the matter, told the Host David Adapuna that the claims are false and insisted that no such thing happened.

He explained that the MDAs in fact received fewer bags of the fertilizer than expected, which accounted for the delay in the distribution. Gariba said there was no way the MDCEs would have been able to fairly share the fewer bags among the large number of beneficiaries who had been registered to receive the government support.

Additionally, Gariba said the fertilizer arrived just a few days before the general election, making it practically  inappropriate for the MDCEs to distribute them at that time.

Gariba, who wants the accusers to provide evidence to back their claims, further stated that the allegations are unfounded and only aimed at creating disaffection towards the former MDCEs in the eyes of delegates ahead of the party’s presidential primaries.

“Maxwell Aburiya, who is the campaign coordinator for Team Bryan, decided to throw out that wild allegation. For me, I partly blame the media because someone cannot just make such a bold claim without proof and still be left off the hook,” he said.

Gariba continued that, “If something like that had truly happened, people would have stood up against it, and the matter would have become public knowledge,”

“Is it that the said girlfriend has her own house, or is she renting? How can 1,000 bags of fertilizer be stored in someone’s home without anyone noticing or taking a picture of it?

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