COCOBOD fertilizer case; Opuni demands documents

Embattled former Chief Executive of the Ghana COCOBOD has filed an application in court seeking documentation relating to facts that the Republic would be relying on in the case against him.

Dr. Stephen Opuni has been charged with 27 counts of various criminal offences relating to lithovit foliar fertilizer supply contracts covering three cocoa planting seasons awarded to indigenous company, Agricult Ghana Limited.

The other parties in the matter are Agricult and its Managing Director Seidu Agongo.

Even though the matters being tried by the court relates to actions taken by Dr. Opuni as COCOBOD CEO, he has indicated that he does not have copies of the documents in question and therefore wants the court to order the Attorney General to give him copies.

Dr. Opuni in the application said the documents are crucial to his defence against the charges because his lawyers would be making copious references to them.

The documents relates firstly to claims by the Attorney General that Dr. Opuni whiles serving as COCOBOD CEO instructed or directed officials of a subsidiary of COCOBOD Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) to shorten the period for testing the said Lithovit Foliar fertilizer.

The other document the former COCOBOD CEO is applying for are letters he is alleged by the AG to have written to the Public Procurement Authority on the 19^th and 24^th February and the 10^th December 2014 and the 16^th October 2015 purportedly misleading the authority to grant approval for sole sourcing of the fertilizer in question.

Dr. Opuni also wants copies of the report of the February 2017 probe that indicted him on the matter and recommended criminal investigation of the said allegations that have become the subject matter of the court case.

Aside these documents, Dr. Opuni is also asking the court to direct the AG to supply him with copies witness statements of persons interviewed as part of the probe and those the state intends to call as prosecution witnesses and defence witnesses of Seidu Agongo and Agricult.

The former COCOBOD CEO believes the documents in question would help him in the preparation of his defence.

Dr. Opuni is relying on the same constitutional provision that has led to the invocation of the Supreme Court’s power to interprete and enforce the constitution in the case against a former Board Chair of the National Communication Authority and four others.

He believes the provisions of Article 19(2)(e)&(g) of the 1992 constitution entitles him to the documents he is applying for.

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