Former Cocobod CEO, Dr Stephen Kwabena Opuni & businessman Seidu Agongo have been acquitted and discharged of all the criminal charges brought against them by the State.

It follows a request by the State that the charges be withdrawn.

A State Attorney, Enam Loh Mensah, told the court on Tuesday; “My Lord, pursuant to this, the Republic has filed notice of withdrawal.”

The court subsequently acquitted and discharged them, and also ordered the Registrar of the court to notify the Police CID to release their passports to them.

The two have over the past eight years been facing 27 charges in court, including allegedly defrauding the state by false pretences, wilfully causing financial loss to the state & contravening public procurement provisions.

They had consistently denied the charges.

Counsel for Opuni and Agongo, Samuel Cudjoe and Benson Nutsukpui, told the court they had been served with the withdrawal notice.

Background

Agongo, CEO of Agricult Ghana Limited, was alleged to have fraudulently sold sub-standard fertilizer to COCOBOD, with the alleged facilitation of Dr Opuni.

Opuni was accused of waiving a proper testing and certification of the fertilizer supplied by Agongo, as required by law, which subsequently was distributed to farmers and allegedly resulted in poor yields.

Their trial started in March 2018, with the A-G charging the two with 27 counts for allegedly willfully causing financial loss of GH¢271.3 million to the state.

The two accused persons repeatedly pleaded not guilty to all the 27 charges and were on GH¢300,000 bail each, with their passports impounded.

Intriguing twists and turns

The case on many occasions during its pendency, assumed dramatic colouration with the defence team fending off what it suggested was political persecution and bias rather than a pursuit of justice.

In March 2020, the defence team accused the then trial judge, Justice Clemence Honyenuga, (a Justice of the Court of Appeal), of bias when he made a plea for the retention of then President Nana Akufo-Addo for another term in office for his “visionary leadership”.

The defence asked that Honyenuga recuses himself from the case. He refused after ruling that the request was incompetent and misconceived.

Justice Honyenuga, also the Paramount Chief of the Nyagbo Traditional Area, on February 18, 2020, praised the President for what he described as his sterling performance.

“We wish to congratulate you on the excellent manner in which you are governing this dear country of ours. It is our hope that with your vision and the gains made in your first term, Ghanaians will consider giving you another four years," Torgbui Nyagasi (Justice Honyenuga) said when the President visited the Nyagbo Traditional Area as part of a tour of the Volta Region.

Lawyers for Dr Opuni contended that that statement by the judge, even in his capacity as a traditional leader, was a clear indication of his support for President Akufo-Addo.

According to them, such a move meant that Justice Honyenuga had compromised his neutrality and would not be fair to their client, who happened to be an appointee of the erstwhile Mahama-led administration.

The sub-case was characterised by heated exchanges between the prosecution, judge and defence.

Honyenuga retires, new judge wants to start trial afresh
Soon Justice Honyenuga was to proceed on retirement and the case was assumed by Justice Kwasi Anokye Gyimah, who in April 2023, decided to retry the case altogether rather than proceeding with the case, with all its many allegations and counter allegations.

“It would be unfair for the court to ignore the allegations and adopt the previous proceedings as it is. In order for the court to have a first-hand information of the trial and the demeanour of witnesses, the court will start the trial ‘De Novo,” he had ruled.