Former President John Dramani Mahama has refuted claims that guinea fowls from the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) project migrated to Burkina Faso during his tenure in 2014.
Addressing media in Bolgatanga on Wednesday (7 August) as part of his tour of the Upper East Region, Mahama explained that the SADA initiative involved incubating guinea fowl eggs and distributing day-old chicks to farmers, rather than maintaining a large flock in a single location.
Mahama criticized the media for propagating the myth that guinea fowls were seen flying to Burkina Faso. He stated, “No guinea fowl flew to Burkina Faso. Guinea fowls are not migratory birds and the project was not for you to come and see thousands of guinea fowls in one place. It was supposed to incubate the eggs and give the guinea fowls’ day-old chicks to farmers.”
He added, “Somebody came and asked the watchman, ‘where are the guinea fowls?’ And the watchman said, they go Burkina Faso, they go come back in the rainy season. The media went and published it. And after that, there are people who believe that there were some guinea fowls that flew to Burkina Faso.”
Mahama also described the project’s broader goals, including establishing a processing plant for guinea fowls and distributing them to market centers.
“There was supposed to be a processing plant so that the guinea fowls would be bought off the households and processed. And they would put them in frozen trucks to send them down to the south to the market. Unfortunately, the project ran into issues”, he lamented.
SOURCE: DAILY MAIL GH
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