Attah Issah is the MP for Sagnarigu
The Member of Parliament for Sagnarigu and Ranking Minority Member on Parliament’s Finance Committee, Attah Issah, has signalled that prosecutions may soon follow over alleged financial mismanagement at the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) under the previous administration.
Speaking on TV3’s The KeyPoints on February 21, 2026, Issah said that when arrests are eventually made over the “rot” allegedly created at COCOBOD, critics should not characterise the actions as a witch-hunt.
“When we soon start arresting people over the rot created at COCOBOD, no one should claim they are being witch-hunted,” he warned.
Here is how much COCOBOD has paid LBCs so far
The comments came during a discussion on the ongoing cocoa sector crisis, with Issah squarely placing the blame on the former New Patriotic Party (NPP) government for what he described as reckless decision-making.
“You mismanaged the sector by your reckless commitments. You inherited GH¢1.8 billion yet created a mess. When you look at what happened, you ask yourself what kind of decisions were taken,” he argued.
Issah’s remarks were made in response to comments by the Director of Communications of the NPP, Richard Ahiagbah, who attributed the crisis to poor decisions by the former COCOBOD management.
Ahiagbah maintained the situation stemmed from risky marketing decisions and the timing of cocoa sales rather than structural mismanagement.
The debate follows a controversial statement by the Majority in Parliament on February 19, which criticised the Minority’s call for a government bailout for cocoa farmers amid a reported GH¢60 million debt owed by COCOBOD.
Chairman of the Finance Committee, Isaac Adongo, explained that the previous administration left COCOBOD in deep financial distress, with approximately GH¢17.8 billion in loans and other liabilities by the start of 2025.
He warned that such extensive indebtedness undermines the institution’s ability to borrow further or sustain additional bailouts.
ID/AE
Meanwhile, watch GhanaWeb’s exposé on the ‘dark side of Kayamata’ and its devastating impact
Source:
www.ghanaweb.com
