Dr Stephen Opuni
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, yesterday further grilled a farmer testifying for former Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Stephen Opuni, who is standing trial for causing over GH₵217 million financial loss to the state.
The DPP, while further cross-examining the witness accused him of altering a purported passbook by changing the dates with pen in order to deceive the court about the amount of cocoa beans he sold and the monies he got for same.
She put it to the witness, for instance that, the price per kilo of cocoa beans in the 2013/2014 cocoa season was Gh₵3.39 and therefore, there was no way he could have been paid GH₵3,199 after selling 421kg of cocoa beans.
Instead, the DPP said the records contained on page 4 of the passbook which is the first record of sales were for the 2017/2018 cocoa season where the price per kilo of cocoa was GH₵7.6 which tallies with the cheque he received for GH₵3,199 for 421kg of cocoa beans.
“I put it to you that your entire testimony is unreliable because even on page 2 of your passbook, the correct date of issue of this passbook is 9/12/2017 which tallies with the first recordings on page 4 and you have deliberately altered the last number to read 9/12/2012 to deceive this court”, the DPP pressed.
The witness, Thomas Amoh Amankwaa, in response told the court that he was not the one that recorded the details in the passbook, but rather it was the Purchasing Clerk in Berekum who did the recording and made a lot of mistakes in them.
Mrs. Obuobisa also pointed out another inaccuracy in the passbook in the 2015/16 cocoa season where the witness got GH₵19,000 instead of GH₵17,000 for 2,500kg of cocoa beans at the price of GH₵6.8 per kilo of cocoa beans.
The witness in his response said the purchasing clerks do add money to their total amount if the cocoa they supply are of good quality, adding that, that was the first time he had sent such a cocoa to the clerk, so that made him add more money to his (witness’) total amount.
“I put it to you that you are not being truthful because the farmer is given the price per kilo and you are paid per kilo and not on how nice the cocoa looks to the purchasing clerk” the DPP challenged.
“I am not being untruthful to the court. Any cocoa farmer knows that when you send your cocoa beans and it is nice, money is added”, the witness said.
Kilos vs Sack
The witness during his evidence-in-chief had told the court about the kilograms of cocoa beans he got in each year after applying various fertilizers supplied to them by the Ghana Cocoa Board.
But while under cross examination, he told the court that farmers, including himself do not worry about the price per kilo as they are only interested in the money paid them per a bag of cocoa.
“As a literate cocoa farmer, you will know how much you should receive for the cocoa beans you send to your purchasing clerk. Is that not so?” the DPP asked.
“As a cocoa farmer, when we send our cocoa beans to the cocoa clerks and they weigh it, they record it in their small book and do their calculations after which we the farmers are very much interested in the money we are paid and not the price per kilo as they calculate” he answered.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak