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Ghana's deputy minister for Agric resigns over ethnocentric comments
The communications director at the Flagstaff House confirmed his resignation Monday evening via Facebook.
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Flagstaff House communications director Eugene Arhin confirmed his resignation Monday evening via Facebook.
His resignation takes immediate effect, the statement said, adding that the president wished him the very best in future engagements.
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"The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, this evening accepted the resignation from the office of the Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Hon. William Quaitoo, MP, which takes immediate effect. The President wished him the very best in his future endeavours," he said.
In a widely reported media interview, the resigned deputy Agric minister described northerners as people who are "so difficult" to deal and also suggested they are extortionist.
Mr Quaitoo made the ethnocentric comments in an interview with Accra-based Starr FM on the armyworm invasion of some farm lands in the Northern Region.
Farmers in the northern region have been complaining about lack of assistance from the Agric minister as they battle the fall armyworm invasion.
Unfazed by their concerns, the minister launched a blistering attack on them saying: "Anybody in the north who said his farm was destroyed by armyworm would have to prove it.
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"You see that is how our brothers, excuse my language, it is so difficult to deal with them.
"I lived there for 27 years, I speak Dagbani like a Dagomba and all that. They are very difficult people. Nobody can substantiate. If anybody says that his farm was destroyed by army worm, the person would have to come and prove it".
READ MORE: GH¢15m released to fight Armyworms
"We have no records of that. It’s just a way of taking money from the government: that’s what they do all the time…”
He later apologised for his comments after he was widely criticised for his outburst.
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