A 60-year-old settler farmer at Twifo-Abodom in the Central Region, Opanyin Kow Budu, has appealed to President J.A. Kufuor to bring to book an Assin-Foso based timber contractor who is popularly called “Osofo”, for allegedly causing extensive damage to a three-acre cocoa and food crops farm belonging to him.
Opanyin Budu who made the appeal through the press said, Osofo through his timber business, destroyed about 40 productive cocoa trees in one of his farms sometime last year and paid a token compensation of ?4,000 per tree after a lot of pressure had been put on him.
According to Opanyin Budu, during Christmas time last year, Osofo again entered a three-acre cocoa and food crops farm which had been established about two years ago and virtually destroyed 230 young cocoa trees, 60 palm trees and other food crops.
He said, when Osofo was challenged for the damage he had caused through his illegal timber business, he agreed to negotiate for the payment of reasonable compensations for the damaged crops but became furious in the middle of the negotiations and walked out of the meeting.
All efforts to get Osofo to resume the talks, according to him, have proved futile.
