Thieves have allegedly broken into the warehouse of the Techiman Metropolitan Department of Agriculture and made away with about 98,603 bags of rice and quantities of fertilizers.
The 2.5kg bags of rice and the fertilizers—comprising 4,447 5kg bags of MP4 fertilizer and 3,150 5kg bags of Urea fertilizer—were allegedly stolen from the warehouse a week after the December 7 General Election.
Grace Obeng Amenya, the Techiman Metropolitan Officer in charge of Stock at the Techiman Metro Department of Agriculture, disclosed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Techiman and added that the items were meant to be distributed to drought-affected farmers in the area.
“We received the items a week before the General Elections, and they were to be given to some drought-affected farmers. However, just before the elections, we received a call that some unknown people had besieged the warehouse and made away with the items,” she said.
They allegedly broke the original padlocks and replaced them with new ones, according to Amenya, who added that the incident has since been reported to the police.
She said a regional investigative team was set up to probe the incident. When the team broke into the warehouse, it was discovered that the items had indeed been stolen.
Stephen Aidoo, the Techiman Metropolitan Director of the Department of Agriculture, also confirmed the incident and told the GNA that investigations are ongoing; however, no arrests have been made so far.
