COCOBOD GH¢271m financial loss case: Expert opposes adverse findings against lithovit fertiliser – Witness
• Dr Stephen Opuni
It has emerged that Mr Alex Asante Afrifa, the Head of Soil Division at the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG), objected adverse findings made against lithovit fertiliser at two laboratories.
This came to light yesterday during cross examination of Mr Paul Adjei Gyan of Operations Directorate, Economic and Organised Crime Organisation (EOCO), by Mr Samuel Codjoe, at the Accra High Court, presided over by Justice Aboagye Tandoh.
Mr Codjoe is the counsel for Dr Stephen Kwabena Opuni, the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of COCOBOD, who is standing trial together with Mr Seidu Agongo, Managing Director of Agricult Ghana Limited, a fertiliser manufacturing company.
Dr Opuni and Agongo have been accused of causing GH¢271 million financial loss to the state through procurement breaches and supplying sub-standard fertiliser to COCOBOD.
Mr Codjoe quizzed Mr Gyan about tests conducted on lithovitfertiliser by the Chemistry Department of University of Ghana and Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), which findings stated lithovit was not a good fertiliser.
But, the witness told the court that when these adverse findings were shown to Mr Afrifaat EOCO, Mr Afrifa challenged the reports.
Mr Afrifa is the scientist who conducted tests on lithovit fertiliser, produced by Agricult Ghana Limited, before it was approved by COCOBOD for use on mature cocoa leaves.
Mr Afrifa gave statements to EOCO in respect of the tests he conducted on lithovitfertiliser, and said it was a good product.
This was against the statement of Dr Adu Ampomah, who was the complainant in the case, in which Opuni and Mr Seidu Agongo, are standing trial for alleged procurement breaches.
Mr Gyan told the court that
MrAfrifa told EOCO that he (Afrifa) does not know the source of the lithovit which was tested by the two institutions.
The witness also confirmed that Mr Afrifa challenged the method and procedures used in the tests as they were unknown to him (witness).
The witness again confirmed that Agricult Ghana Limited challenged the two findings that lithovit was not a proper fertiliser.
Mr Codjoe told the court that it was based on the objections by the witness that EOCO carried a third test with the involvement of the accused.
The COCOBOD 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 at the outset 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 financial loss of GH¢271.3 million to the state, and led to the distribution of sub-standard fertiliser to cocoa farmers.
Agongo is alleged to have 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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