COCOBOD GH¢271m financial loss case: No farmer drank lithovit fertiliser – Witness

 A witness in the ongoing trial of Dr Stephen Kwabena Opuni, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of COCOBOD, yesterday said none of the farmers investigated said they drank lithovitfertiliser like water.

Mr Paul Adjei Gyan, Op­erations Directorate of the Economic and Organised Crime Organisation (EOCO), was a member of the team that inves­tigated Dr Opuni, first accused, and Mr Seidu Agongo, Manag­ing Director of Agricult Ghana Limited, a fertiliser manufactur­ing company.

The witness was answering questions under cross examina­tion conducted by Mr Samuel Codjoe, counsel for Dr Opuni, at the Accra High Court.

It is the case of the prosecu­tion that some farmers alleged that they drunk lithovit fertiliser, which was supplied to COCO­BOD by Mr Agongo, like water.

But, Mr Codjoe suggested to the witness that EOCO did not make any adverse findings about lithovit fertiliser.

Mr Adjei told the court that per EOCO’s investigations, which was later transferred to the Ghana Police Service, one farmer said he did not get the expected yield and the other farmer said lithovit fertiliser was good.

Dr Opuni and Mr Agongo are standing trial for conspiracy to commit crime and procurement breaches in a fertiliser deal.

The trial had dragged on for more than six years. Justice Clement Jackson Honyenugah, a retired Supreme Court Judge, was the first trial judge until he went on retirement.

The case docket was later as­signed to Justice Gyimah Boadi, who decided to conduct fresh tri­al because of what he considered as “suspicions and allegations” from the parties concerned.

Justice Boadi was subse­quently, transferred and the case was assigned to Justice Aboagye Tandoh.

Before then, the Attor­ney-General and Minister of Justice, Godred Yeboah Dame, appealed the decision of Justice Boadi to conduct fresh trial, and later in a ruling, a three-member panel of judges overturned the decision to start the trial afresh.

In March 2018, the Attor­ney-General charged Dr Opuni and Agongo with 27 counts for allegedly engaging in illegalities that caused GH¢271.3 million fi­nancial loss to the state, and led to the distribution of sub-stan­dard fertiliser to cocoa farmers.

Agongo allegedly used fraud­ulent means to sell sub-standard fertiliser to COCOBOD for onward distribution to cocoa farmers, while Dr Opuni is accused of facilitating the act by not allowing Agongo’s products to be tested and certified, as required by law.

The two accused persons have pleaded not guilty to all the 27 charges and are on GH¢300,000 bail each.

BY MALIK SULLEMANA

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