the former CEO of Cocobod, 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It follows a request by the State that the charges be withdrawn.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 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 have been served with the withdrawal notice.
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.
More soon
Reacting to the ruling, Dr. Stephen Kwabena Opuni (Former CEO of COCOBOD) said, The living God I serve has disgraced and cursed my enemies, my persecutors, and all my destiny haters.
Voice of Dr. Stephen Kwabena Opuni
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