I don’t recall meeting at behest of Dr Opuni to shorten fertiliser testing – Witness

A witness, Dr Francis Baah, told the Accra High Court that he does not recall a meeting at the behest of Dr Stephen Opuni to compel sci­entists to shorten the testing time of lithovit fertiliser.

He was testifying in the ongo­ing trial of Dr Opuni, the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of COCOBOD trial, for alleged procurement breaches and caus­ing GH¢217 million financial loss to the state in a fertiliser deal.

Dr Opuni is being tried together with Seidu Agongo, who is the Managing Director Agricult Ghana Limited, a fertilier manu­facturing company, on the same charge.

The office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice, who conducted criminal prosecu­tions on behalf of the state, has accused Dr Opuni of organising a meeting during his tenure as the CEO, to coerce scientists to shorten the testing period of lithovit fertiliser which the prose­cution claimed is not efficacious.

But Dr Baah who is still an employee of COCOBOD, and former office manager of Dr Opuni, told the court, presided over by Justice Aboagye Tandoh, that he does not recall being part of a meeting to discuss shorten­ing the testing period for lithovit.

When Mr Samuel Kudjo, counsel for Dr Opuni, during cross examination, suggested to the witness that the practice at COCOBOD for testing of fertilisers was written and directed to the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG), he (Dr Baah) said counsel was right.

The COCOBOD trial has been going for more than six years.Justice Clement Jackson Honyenugah, a Supreme Court Judge, was the first trial judge to sit on the case before 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.

This was after the AG and Minister of Justice, Godred Ye­boah Dame, appealed the decision of Justice Boadi to conduct fresh trial.

Consequently, a three-mem­ber panel of judges later in its overturned the decision to start a trial afresh.

In March 2018, the AG 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 substandard fertiliser to cocoa farmers.

Agongo is alleged to have used fraudulent means to sell substan­dard 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.