The president of one of Ivory Coast's main cocoa farmers' unions has been sacked because of alleged fraud in the latest row over the management of cocoa funds in the world's biggest grower.
Laurent Tape Koulou had, president of the Synaprocci union, had led farmers' protests against the Regulatory and Control Fund (FRC), saying it had failed to do its job of compensating them for low cocoa prices this year.
The protesters had threatened to disrupt the marketing of the upcoming 2004/05 harvest, which starts on October 1. He was also a vocal critic of the West African country's finance minister, whom he accused of encouraging money-wasting in the cocoa sector.
At a meeting this week, 10 of the Synaprocci union's 14 regional presidents decided to throw out Tape Koulou, a union official said on Friday. They said he had failed to pass on to the union's treasurer seven million CFA francs ($13,000) which they said he had received from the FRC in August.
In a statement published on Friday in Ivory Coast's daily papers, Tape Koulou - who is currently in France - denied ever receiving the payment.
Comments
Comments are closed.