New Edubiase (Ash), March 26, GNA - Almost two years after cutting down more than 100 cocoa trees which were bearing fruits on her farm at Menang near New Edubiase in the Adansi South district of Ashanti for the extension of electricity to Menang and adjourning villages by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), no compensation has been paid to the affected farmer.

The farmer, Madam Amma Boahemaa, 50, is therefore demanding compensation from the ECG, the contractor engaged on the project and the Adansi South district assembly. Speaking to the Ghana News Agency about the injustice being meted out to her, Madam Boahemaa said she was not even informed that some of her cocoa trees would be cut down to pave the way for the extension of electricity through her farm to the communities. All she saw was that the contractor working on the project had unilaterally entered her farm and cut down the trees and erected the poles that will carry the low tension cables to the communities.

In spite of the fact that she had not been paid compensation for the cocoa trees destroyed, the contractor, Madam Boahemaa said, again entered the farm recently and felled a big tree which destroyed a number of her cocoa trees without informing her. She said whereas the ECG and the contractor sought permission from the Forestry Commission (FC) before cutting down some trees in the forest reserve near her farm for the project, the ECG and the contractor brazenly destroyed her cocoa trees on her farm without any notification let alone talk about compensation.

Madam Boahemaa has therefore, called on the government to compensate her for the destruction of her cocoa trees claiming that the destruction of the trees had affected her income from the farm since the farm was her only source of livelihood. When contacted, Mr Francis Dorpenyoh, the Adansi South District Chief Executive said he had been informed about the case and promised to invite the parties involved for an amicable settlement.