Extensive searches, including excavation, for alleged stolen items in the residences of the former Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) boss, Dr Stephen Kwabena Opuni, took centre stage during his trial at the Accra High Court last Wednesday.
Under cross-examination, Samuel Codjoe, counsel for Dr Opuni, questioned a witness, Paul Agyei Gyang, a senior investigator at the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), about the outcomes of numerous searches conducted at Opuni’s official residence in Accra and his family house in Dorma Ahemkro. Codjoe specifically inquired whether any stolen items were discovered.
Gyang admitted that nothing was found during the searches, but rebutted claims by the counsel that investigators had excavated Opuni’s house in search of stolen items.
Dr Opuni and Seidu Agongo, CEO of Agricult Ghana Limited, an agrochemical company, faced charges in March 2018. Prosecutors accused them of causing a financial loss of over GH¢271 million to the state through a series of Lithovit Foliar fertilizer transactions.
The prosecution contends that, the fertilizer supplied was substandard, and Agongo is accused of using fraudulent means to sell it to COCOBOD for distribution to cocoa farmers.
The Attorney General, has further accused Dr Opuni of using his position as the CEO of COCOBOD (November 2013 to January 2017) to facilitate the alleged acts of Agongo by allowing the Lithovit fertiliser not to be tested and certified as required by law.
Dr Opuni and Agongo, have both pleaded not guilty to 24 counts ranging from wilfully causing financial loss to the state, defrauding by false pretence, contravention of procurement laws, corruption of a public officer and manufacturing fertiliser without registration.
The two are on self-recognisance bail in the sum of GH¢300,000 each.
Mr Gyang, is testifying as a defence witness for Agongo after being subpoenaed by the court following a request by lawyers for the businessman.
During the cross-examination, Mr Codjoe, sought to establish that the searches conducted at his client’s premises during the investigations in 2017, were so extensive to the extent that the room of Dr Opuni’s deceased mother, was searched without any regard to tradition.
According to counsel, during the searches, his client was not given access to his phone, neither was he given prior notice of the searches or were his lawyers allowed to accompany him on the searches.
However, the witness countered that the investigative team, sought the consent of Dr Opuni before conducting the said searches, and that the former cocoa boss was with his lawyer all the time.
Mr Gyang, also informed the court that it would have been against best practices in investigations to give Dr Opuni prior notice before conducting a search in his residence and family house.
Below are excerpts of what ensued between the witness and counsel.
Mr Codjoe: When the investigative team conducted these searches, nothing was found which were connected to the allegations under investigations. Is that not so?
Mr Gyang: Yes, nothing was found on the premises connected to the allegations under investigations.
Mr Codjoe: Before the search, you did not give him prior notice of this search but he was informed on the day of the searches when he was in the company of his lawyers at EOCO.
Mr Gyang: I would not be surprised. Because as part of the best practices in investigations, it was only proper that he was told on the very day in the presence of his lawyer.
Last week, it emerged in court that a COCOBOD Committee which was chaired by Dr. Yaw Adu-Ampomah, whose report formed the basis for the prosecution of Dr. Opuni and Seidu Agongo, was constituted after Dr. Adu-Ampomah was informed by EOCO, that a test result by the Ghana Standards Authority has proven that lithovit was indeed a fertilizer.
#The committee which sat for days also invited several people but failed to invite the then suspects – Dr. Opuni and Mr. Agongo – even though the committee’s final report indicted the two.
Also, the committee excluded the test result conducted by GSA with all parties involved which showed that lithovit contains the necessary ingredients which qualify it as fertilizer. The report rather added two disputed reports – one by the Chemistry Department of the University of Ghana and the other by GSA – taken from samples Dr. Adu-Ampomah submitted to EOCO for testing from an unknown source that said lithovit was negative for fertilizer.
Mr. Paul Agyei Gyang who led the EOCO’s team that investigated the alleged fraudulent procurement of lithovit involving the accused between 2014 and 2016 as the Head of Organised Crime Unit, revealed in court on Wednesday, February 21, 2024 that the test that showed positive result for lithovit was duly communicated to Dr. Adu-Ampomah who was the complainant in the fraud allegation, months before the committee the latter headed was formed.
Interestingly, whilst the COCOBOD committee began to investigate the procurement of lithovit on 4th October 2017, EOCO was still investigating the same product as was requested by the chairman of the Committee Dr. Adu-Ampomah, who was also then the Deputy Chief Executive of COCOBOD in charge of Agronomy and Quality Control.
The EOCO investigations continued until they were ordered to hand over the docket to the Ghana Police Service on 15th June 2018.
However, Mr. Agyei Gyang confirmed to the court that the EOCO investigating team was not aware about the work of the COCOBOD committee nor was it informed about the report of the Adu-Ampomah committee, dated 7th November 2017, which was tendered in evidence by the prosecution as exhibit H.
According to the lead investigator, he only heard about the committee for the first time in court.
Mr. Gyang, who is now at the Operations Directorate of EOCO as a Senior Staff, confirmed to the court as a subpoenaed witness for the second and third accused, on February 19, 2024, that Dr. Adu-Ampomah accompanied his complaint with samples of lithovit which source was unknown.
He reiterated on February 21, 2024 that because of the differences in the two reports, though conducted by the same institution – Ghana Standard Authority – the scientists who worked on the samples were invited by EOCO, after which Dr. Adu-Amomah was also invited and informed about the outcome.
According to Mr. Gyang, the first test conducted by GSA that produced negative outcome for lithovit was done at the Cosmetics Drugs Forensic and Toxicology Department that was not equipped to test fertilizer. EOCO received the test result on 5th May 2017.
Seidu Agongo whose company, Agricult Ghana Limited, produces the lithovit fertilizer rejected the report when he was invited by EOCO, prompting the need for a second test to be carried out, on the instructions of the then Executive Director of EOCO, with the involvement of all interested parties. A sample for the test was therefore taken from the warehouse of COCOBOD at Spintex and submitted to GSA on 30th June 2017.
EOCO received the result for the second test on 2nd July 2017.
This time, the test was done at the Material Science Department of GSA which is known to be responsible for testing fertilizers.
The head of the Material Science Department of GSA, Mrs. Baah Mantey wrote in her statement to investigators that from the second scientific report, “the results revealed that that sample contained some amounts of nitrogen phosphorus and potassium and so the sample was identified as fertilizer”.
“Please tell the court if you know. Was the complainant informed about the result of the second test?” Benson Nutsukpui asked the EOCO investigator.
“Yes my Lord, as I told the court about the people, he himself was equally informed,” the witness replied.
