By: Momodou Justice Darboe
The police in Farafenni were on Monday deployed after angry farmers stormed the home of a secco manager.
Frustration has been building in the groundnut farming community as farmers grew impatient over the pace at which cash was being paid for their harvests.
Since the beginning of this year’s groundnut trade season, the GGC has been struggling to ensure an expeditious payment of farmers’ cash across 94 seccos countrywide.
Groundnut farmers from parts of Upper Baddibu on Monday took matters into their own hands by attacking the home of the town’s secco manager. The farmers walked to the manager’s home, where they reportedly confronted him on the allegation that he was paying cash for groundnut there.
According to informed sources, the farmers were agitating for the payment of money for their weighed groundnuts.
As the situation deteriorated, police were called in to douse the tension.
“The police at Farafenni station were deployed to bring about normalcy after the farmers harangued and hectored the seccomanager, insisting on payment for their money,” one of our sources said.
The secco manager confirmed to North Bank-based journalist Haruna Kuyateh that his home was stormed by farmers, who claimed that he was disbursing money to peanut sellers there.
The manager has denied farmers’ claim that he was secretly using his home to pay cash to farmers.
He called the police, who later arrived, to disperse the crowds.
“AGIB is the authorised body for payment and I neither handle cash nor carry it home. Because of insults meted out to me, I decided to report them to Farafeni Police Station,” he told journalist Kuyateh.
Meanwhile, GGC PRO told this reporter that the corporation has put in place measures to eliminate the buying of groundnuts on credit. He expressed the hope that the issue of credit-buying would be dealt with as soon as practicable.