The Vice President, John Dramani Mahama has challenged critics to proceed to the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) on the lifting of the ban imposed by the COCOBOD on a British cocoa Trading company, Armajaro Company Ltd.
The British company was banned by the COCOBOD following investigations by ace investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas which implicated Armajaro and three other companies in the smuggling of cocoa from Ghana into neighbouring Cote d’Ivoire.
The ban was subsequently lifted on November 28, after a British Minister petitioned the COCOBOD on the advice of the Vice President.
A group, Alliance for Responsible Office Holders (AFROH) in a statement signed by its chairman, Mahama Haruna accused the Vice President of using his office to ensure that the ban was lifted.
The Sunday Times of the United Kingdom also revealed that the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, acting on the request of the Secretary of International Development, Andrew Mitchell, got the British High Commissioner in Accra to lobby the Castle, the seat of Ghana’s Presidency, to overturn the ban imposed against the British company for breaking the laws of the Republic of Ghana.
But the Vice President has stated categorically that he did not use his office to lobby for the ban to be lifted on Armajaro.
Speaking to Citi News Correspondent at the Castle, Richard Mensah, John Mahama insisted that he did not interfere in the lifting of the ban imposed on Armajaro Company Limited.
He said he only asked the British Minister to petition COCOBOD if he felt he had been treated unfairly.
John Mahama added that he hopes the claims by the AFROH to drag him to CHRAJ will not be a “phantom” but a reality.
He added that the accusation against him is a deliberate attempt by some detractors to denigrate him.
“I am very happy that they are going to CHRAJ. Indeed, I challenge them to go to CHRAJ and I hope that it won’t be a phantom. They just said it and leave it. They should actually go to CHRAJ so that we get a closure on it because I can’t see the wrong doing in this”.
“I don’t see what the whole fuss is about, of course I know that the politicking and that kind of thing. I presume that it’s just a way to keep something alive just to denigrate one’s character…but I am happy that they themselves want to go to CHRAJ and I will be very glad to meet them there”.
Source: citifmonline.com
