Supreme Court orders banks to unfreeze Opuni’s accounts

A five-member panel of the Supreme Court presided over by Justice Jones Dotse has ordered the Ecobank and Stanbic bank to unfreeze Dr. Stephen Opuni accounts.

This comes after an Accra High court dismissed an application by Dr Opuni to have his bank accounts unfrozen.

The bank accounts of the former COCOBOD boss were frozen by the anti-graft office in February 2017 due to investigations being conducted into some contracts he allegedly signed during his tenure.

An Accra high court presided over by Justice Georgina Mensah-Datsa, on April 23, 2018, ordered EOCO to unfreeze Dr. Opuni’s two accounts but overturned same the following day after an ex-parte motion was filed by EOCO.

In early May, Dr. Opuni went back to court to seek an order for EOCO to unfreeze the accounts, saying it was a breach of natural justice for his accounts to be frozen which led the Supreme court to order the release of his account.

Dr Opuni and businessman Seidu Agongo are facing 27 charges of willfully causing financial loss of GH¢217million to the state, through three separate fertiliser supply contracts between 2014 and 2016.

The contracts were GH¢43.1million (2013/2014 cocoa farming season), GH¢75.3million (2014/2015 cocoa farming season) and GH¢98.9million (2015/2016 cocoa farming season) totalling GH¢217million through sole-sourcing, the state claimed, adding that procurement procedures for sole-sourcing were not followed.

The two have pleaded not guilty to all charges and were each granted a GH¢300, 000.