In the ongoing Opuni-Agongo case, the State has reassembled some rerirees of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) and used them as witnesses in the criminal trial of former COCOBOD Chief Executive, Dr. Stephen Opuni, and businessman Seidu Agongo. 

Defence lawyers have detailed in court how members of the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) and COCOBOD top management were dismissed, demoted, transferred, and ordered to proceed on leave because of the case. 

These dismissals and transfers in 2017 allowed the government to engage retirees at COCOBOD to build a dossier against the accused persons.

Dr. Opuni and Alhaji Agongo, along with Agricult Ghana Limited, have been standing trial since 2018, facing 27 charges, including defrauding by false pretenses, willfully causing financial loss to the state, corruption by public officers, and contravention of the Public Procurement Act in the purchase of Lithovit Liquid Fertilizer between 2014 and 2016.

In order to establish a prima facie case that could lead to incarceration, the state called as witnesses Dr. Franklin Manu Amoah, a retiree reengaged as the Executive Director of CRIG; Dr. Alfred Arthur, a senior soil scientist at CRIG; Dr. Yaw Adu-Ampomah, a retiree reengaged as the Deputy Chief Executive at COCOBOD in charge of Agronomy and Quality Control; and four others, including police CID investigator Chief Inspector Thomas Mercer Prempeh.

It was revealed at an Accra High Court that in November 2016, Dr. Alfred Arthur was sanctioned for a wrongful act. 

He was found guilty by an ad hoc committee for receiving and testing an unnamed fertilizer, later identified as Cocoa Nti fertilizer from Enapa Ventures, without his superiors' knowledge. 

Dr. Arthur admitted to going on a sponsored trip to Morocco without informing his superiors. 

The ad hoc committee, chaired by then Deputy Executive Director at CRIG, Rev. Dr. Emmanuel Oddoye, found that Dr. Arthur’s actions were improper and dishonest. Rev. Oddoye was later demoted and transferred from CRIG's head office to the Bole substation, where he retired in June 2021.

Rev. Oddoye told the court that Dr. Francis Oppong, the then COCOBOD Deputy Chief Executive in charge of Agronomy and Quality Control, who ordered the investigation into Dr. Arthur’s malpractice, had his contract terminated a few months later in 2017. 

Dr. Arthur was transferred to the Bunso substation for six months to keep him away from the research laboratory at Tafo. 

At the time Dr. Arthur took possession of 30 bags of Cocoa Nti fertilizer for testing in 2013, Dr. Franklin Manu Amoah was the Executive Director of CRIG, and Dr. Yaw Adu-Ampomah was the Deputy Chief Executive of COCOBOD in charge of Agronomy and Quality Control. Dr. Arthur alleged he received a private email from Dr. Adu-Ampomah suggesting his approval for the testing of the then-unknown fertilizer.

Rev. Oddoye confirmed in court that Dr. Arthur stated representatives of Enapa Ventures had prior discussions with Dr. Franklin Amoah. 

Following the change of government, CRIG’s Executive Director Dr. Gilbert Anim Kwapong was transferred to COCOBOD Head Office in January 2017 without designation, replaced by retiree Dr. Franklin Amoah. 

Dr. Francis Oppong, who requested the setting up of the ad hoc committee on the testing of Cocoa Nti Fertilizer, was also no longer at COCOBOD, having had his appointment terminated.

Dr. Arthur did not appeal the sanction and accepted the punishment for his wrongdoing. Rev. Dr. Oddoye was instructed by Dr. Adu-Ampomah to nullify the sanction and recall Dr. Arthur back to CRIG’s head office. 

It was confirmed that all the principal parties who authorized or set up the ad hoc committee were either transferred or had their appointments terminated.

Evidence tendered in court showed that other fertilizers, like Omni Cocoa Aduane Fertilizer, were tested at CRIG for six months without field trials, contradicting claims that two years is the minimum period for testing fertilizers. 

This evidence indicated that the same prosecution witnesses who insisted on a two-year testing period had themselves approved fertilizers without field trials.

Dr. Franklin Manu Amoah claimed in 2018 that Dr. Opuni gave a directive to shorten the testing period for fertilizers, causing lithovit to be tested for six months without a field trial. 

However, a senior soil scientist at CRIG testified that testing on lithovit liquid fertilizer had been concluded before November 2013, before Dr. Opuni assumed office.

Prosecution witnesses pointed to the speed with which a certificate was issued for lithovit, but evidence showed that Dr. Amoah issued the first certificate without authorization from CRIG’s CTCM. 

The first prosecution witnesses also claimed that lithovit foliar fertilizer tested by CRIG was powdery, but several scientists testified that lithovit tested was liquid.

Mr. Jerome Dogbatse, who was involved in the reevaluation of lithovit in 2016, confirmed that lithovit was a liquid fertilizer. 

An attempt to tender a document showing a letter referring to lithovit as a liquid fertilizer was blocked by the prosecution. Dr. Yaw Adu-Ampomah instructed Dr. Amoah to re-evaluate and issue a certificate for lithovit liquid fertilizer, acknowledging the product as liquid.