A former deputy Chief of Staff Valerie Sawyerr has mocked claims by Minister for Food and Agriculture Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto that the army worm invasion has been defeated completely.

“Mr. Speaker, I want to assure the nation that the fall army worm invasion has been defeated totally,” Dr. Afriyie Akoto told Parliament Thursday July 27, 2017, adding “the situation which has been created by some people that the army worm is consuming the planting for food and jobs [program], Mr. Speaker is not correct, it is wrong.”

But in an epistle addressed to the founder of the National Democratic Congress, former President JJ Rawlings, and the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mrs. Sawyerr dismissed the Food and Agriculture Minister’s claims as lies.

She said, “The army worms have destroyed a lot of our crops, signaling some level of food shortage in the country in the not too distant future. Under better regimes, the Ministry of Defence and the army were brought in quickly to deal with the problem anytime the worms reared their heads.

“This Government was busy doing paperwork to request millions of Cedis to enable them bring the situation under control. Then, finally, the amazingly incompetent Minister for Agriculture lied to the people of Ghana, telling us that the worms had been eradicated when it was not true.

“He should keep on lying till he wakes up one day to find the worms crawling in his hair … but I guess the dye is strong enough to kill them …”

The army worms invaded several farms in the Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Volta and Eastern regions early this year. Over 15,000 hectares of farmlands have been destroyed nationwide by the worms.