Dr. Stephen Opuni
An Accra High Court has dismissed an application by former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Stephen Kwabena Opuni, to set aside a court ruling secured by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) to once again freeze his bank accounts.
The court’s refusal to grant the application, according to the presiding judge, Justice Georgina Mensah-Datsa, is that although EOCO did not follow due process in freezing the accounts, it’s the duty of the anti-crime body to protect state funds.
An Accra High Court on April 23, 2018 ordered EOCO to unfreeze Dr Opuni’s two bank accounts with the Standard Chartered Bank Limited and Ecobank Ghana Limited.
This was after his lawyers had filed a motion asking the court to order the anti-graft body to defreeze his accounts.
But EOCO, on the same day, filed another motion praying the court to once again freeze the two accounts as a result of some new developments and the fact that Dr. Opuni had been dragged to court and the alleged fraudulent money could be in those accounts.
The court subsequently granted the application to “prevent the respondent (Dr. Opuni) from rendering the outcome of the trial nugatory and to prevent the funds in the stated accounts of respondent (Dr. Opuni) from being dissipated.”
In early May, this year, Dr Opuni went back to court to seek an order for EOCO to defreeze the accounts, saying it was a breach of natural justice for his accounts to be frozen when it did not oppose to its application to defreeze them.
He said the continuous freezing of his accounts had caused and continued to cause him and his family extreme hardship, as he had not been able to access funds from his accounts “and have had to resort to contracting loans when available to meet basic daily needs.”
His lawyer, Samuel Codjoe, averred that the decision by EOCO to freeze Dr. Opuni’s accounts for the second time amounted to an abuse of the court processes.
But lawyer for EOCO, Jacqueline Avotri, posited that the decision to get the two bank accounts frozen again did not amount to any abuse of the court system.
According to Mrs Avotri, the first order of confirmation to freeze the accounts had expired and if the order had elapsed, it would be disingenuous on the part of the Executive Director of EOCO to apply for an extension of the freezing order.
Mrs. Avotri, who had earlier indicated that the state was interested in assets recovery, indicated that the entire accounts of Dr Opuni were frozen since the sum total of the charges he is standing trial for is far in excess of the balances in both accounts.
She added that the two bank accounts contained the GH¢25,000.00 he received from his accomplice, Seidu Agongo, and that the money is tainted.
In her short ruling, Justice Georgina Mensah-Datsa, said the court took into consideration some factors, including the functions of EOCO and its duty to protect state funds.
She said the court also took into consideration the need to balance the right of the individual and that of the state.
She, however, held that the anti-crime organisation could have saved everyone the trouble if it had followed the right process per the Act that establishes it.
Justice Georgina Mensah-Datsa, therefore, refused the application, leaving the two bank accounts of Dr Opuni frozen.
The embattled former COCOBOD boss is currently before an Accra High Court, together with the Managing Director of Agricult Ghana Limited, Seidu Agongo, for causing over GH¢217 million financial loss to the state.
By Gibril Abdul Razak