Opuni criminal trial : Judge calls for next witness as another recuperates

Former CEO of the COCOBOD, Dr. Stephen Opuni has been ordered to call his next witness as another witness, Samuel Torbi is allowed to recuperate.

At the last sitting, the court presided over by Justice Clemence Honyenuga JSC openly complained about the seeming sickness of all witnesses called for the first accused.

However, on Monday, May 23, 2022, the presiding judge ordered Dr. Stephen Opuni to call his next witness as Samuel Torbi, who was for the second time absent from court, is allowed to recuperate in order to prevent a further delay in the over 4-year-old trial.

This was after Dr. Opuni’s lawyer had told the court that the Ridge Hospital had given the witness a one-week excuse duty.

On her part, Chief State Attorney, Evelyn Keelson corroborated the above statement to the effect that her outfit had been served with the excuse duty form.

She however was not happy with the doctor’s failure to state the exact sickness that the witness is suffering from thus praying the court to summon the attending doctor to testify to that effect.

This was rejected by the presiding Supreme Court Judge with additional responsibility as a High Court judge, who rather ordered for the next witness to be called in order to ensure a speedy trial.

The case has meanwhile been adjourned to May 25, 2022.

Background

Dr. Opuni and Agongo, the CEO of Agricult Ghana Limited, are on trial for allegedly engaging in illegalities in a series of fertilizer transactions which the Attorney-General (A-G) says caused a financial loss of GH¢271.3 million to the state.

They were dragged to court by the A-G in March 2018 on 27 charges, including willfully causing financial loss to the state, defrauding by false pretense, contravention of procurement laws, corruption of a public officer, and money laundering.