- Peasant farmers seek answers over $12 million uncompleted dam project
- Project launched in 2019, but no work done
- Farmers and MPs call for prosecution over the alleged misuse of funds
The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana has expressed outrage and disbelief over the payment of $12 million to a contractor for the uncompleted Puwalugu Dam project in the Upper East Region. The project, aimed at enabling all-year-round farming, was launched by President Akufo-Addo in November 2019 and was expected to be completed within 50 months.
Charles Nyaaba, President of the Association, expressed shock and disbelief, stating, “All that time, we never knew that so much money had already been paid for the construction. $11.9 million – that is a huge amount of money. So when that report came out, in fact, I couldn’t sleep. As we speak, the majority of our members cannot sleep.”
Member of Parliament for Bongo, Edward Bawa, has also called for accountability and prosecution of those involved in the deal, saying, “We are asking exactly what they used the $12 million for. These are the answers that we are not getting, and that is part of the reason why we decided to go to the site and see what was happening, and we got there and realised that nothing had been done. So it behoves on the government to find a way of ensuring that these monies are retrieved.”
Bawa further emphasized, “And if $12 million, you can’t find anything there, it tells you that there is a crime to be investigated. And whoever is involved in this must be made to face the full rigours of the law.”
