Deputy Agriculture Minister resigns

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Tuesday evening, accepted the resignation of the Deputy Minister for Agriculture, William Quaitoo, from office.

His resignation, coming days after standing accused of ethnocentric remarks against Northerners on the fall army worm disaster in that part of Ghana.

President Akufo-Addo in receiving the Deputy Minister’s resignation thanked him for his service to the country and wished him well in his future endeavours.

The Deputy Minister, who is also the Member of Parliament for Akim Oda, in the Eastern Region, allegedly said on a radio programme that northerners were “difficult people,” in relation to compensation being demanded by farmers in the North for the loss of their crops as a result of the fall army worm outbreak.

“If anybody in the North says his farm was destroyed by armyworm, the person would have to come and prove it. As for our brothers (in the North), it is so difficult to deal with them.

“I lived there for 27 years; I speak Dagbani like a Dagomba and all that. They are very difficult people. Nobody can substantiate. We have no records of that. It’s just a way of taking the money from the Government: that’s what they do all the time…” Mr Quaitoo said on the radio programme when asked what government would do to ameliorate the loss of the farmers.

Those comments were roundly condemned by the Minority in Parliament and the chiefs and youth in the North, who asked the Deputy Minister to resign.

Source: GNA