Trouble is brewing in the ranks of the membership of the Rubber Out-growers Farmers Association (ROGFA) in the Western Region.
Some members of the association, whose rubber plantations and farmlands feed the plants of the Ghana Rubber Estate Limited (GREL), are outraged by the conduct of their own executives.
They have accused their executives of not factoring their general welfare into the running of the association, and are, therefore, calling for an immediate end to the “autocratic way the association was being run.”
Speaking to The Finder on grounds of anonymity, some members blamed the executives for deciding to use their investment to purchase more lands for extensive rubber plantations without recourse to the general membership of the association.
“A few people cannot determine how the association should be run. The fact that they are our leaders does not give them the right to determine how we should use our investment. That should be a collective decision. Anything short of that is dictatorship, and it is unacceptable,” they bemoaned.
Responding to the concerns of the angry members, an instrumental member of the executive body, Awulae Agyeifi Kwame, who is the paramount chief of the Nsein Traditional Area in Nzema, explained that the misunderstanding between the executives and members of the association was due to poor communication.
He said because the members are all farmers, they do not have time to attend meetings to confer with the executives, hence the communication gap.
“I cannot personally pinpoint any crime that the executives have committed. In fact, the members are asking for general improvement of their welfare. The farmers elected the executives to preside over the activities of the association, so they should be prepared to co-operate with them instead of spreading rumours and accusing them wrongly,” he submitted.
He appealed to members to take advantage of the next meeting of the group scheduled for August 16, 2014 to make their concerns public, adding that he personally does not suspect any corrupt act or embezzlement of any sort by the executives.
