The Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Director (PPRSD) registered Agricult Ghana Limited as Lithovit Follar fertilizer importer and not as manufacturer of the fertilizer, according to a witness in Dr Stephen Opuni’s trial.

Dr Felicia Ansah-Ankrofi is the Fourth Prosecution Witness in the trial of Dr Stephen Opuni, the former Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD and two others,

Dr Ansah-Ankrofi, who is the National Director of PPRSD, giving her evidence in Chief led by Mrs Stella Ohene-Appiah, a Principal State Attorney, told the Accra High Court that, she had been working with the Directorate for the past 30 year.

She said the Directorate had four divisions including the Ghana Seed Inspection Division, the Crop Pest and Disease Management Division, the Plant Quarantine Services and Pesticides and Fertilizer Regulatory Division (PFRD).

She said in 2013, she was the Deputy Director of the Pesticides and Fertilizer Regulatory Division and as regulators, the fertilizers Act “states that if anyone or Company wishes to do fertilizer business in Ghana, they needed to apply through the Minister of Food and Agriculture.”

The Witness said the applicant needed to tell the Minister in the application, their desire to register their product and Company.

She said the Minister “then minutes on the application and forward to the Director of PPRSD for action and Director of PPRSD minutes to the Director of PFRD for further action.”

She said the division had procedures one had to go through; when the minutes got to the Head of the division, the applicant was invited for the process to be explained to them.

Dr Ansah-Ankrofi said in regards to Company registration, the applicants were made to produce a certificate of registration from the Registrar-General Department.

She said for product (fertilizer) registration, the applicant was asked to produce the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) of the fertilizer.

She said the applicant was again asked to submit samples of the products to be registered for Laboratory analysis, after which a committee was set up to analysis the result.

She said if the results were the same as the MSDS and fell between the acceptable ranges, the Committee then passed the product and the applicant was then informed to pay the fees “so they pick the certificate.”

Asked, whether she knew Dr Opuni, the witness answered in the negative, saying, “l do not know him personally or officially.”

Mrs Ohene-Appiah asked the witness, whether she knew Seidu Agongo and Agricult Ghana Limited and the witness answered in the affirmative.

She said, she got to knew Agricult when a letter was minuted to her by the then Director of PFRD in 2013 and she got to know Agongo when he followed up on some documents at the directorate.

She said in regard to the Agricult Ghana Limited registration, a letter was minuted to her for which she commenced the procedure with the Company through the invitation of a representative.

“We registered Agricult Ghana Limited’s Lithovit Follar Fertilizer,” she said.

She said the application came in 2013 and the Laboratory analysis done in June, the same year but payment for certificate was delayed.

She said the payment was made in 2014, where the certificate was given.

Asked to tell the court, the nature of the Agricult’s fertilizer presented for registration, the witness said the Lithovit Follar Fertilizer presented was powder.

Dr Ansah-Ankrofi said in February 2018, two police officers came to her office indicating they were coming from the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ghana Police Service and wanted to know if she knew of Agricult Ghana Limited and Lithovit Foillar Fertilizer.

She said, she told them what the fertilizer was and that the Company was registered with the PPRSD.

She said even though Lithovit Fertilizer was registered with PPRSD, it had to be tested by the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana for use on Cocoa seedlings.

In a cross-examination led by Mr Samuel Cudjoe, the Counsel for Dr Opuni, asked the witness, whether she had had contact with the accused person during the registration of the product and the witness answered in the negative.

Mr Cudjoe ended his cross-examination with the witness on that note.

In a further cross-examination by Mr Nutifafa Nutsukpui, Counsel for Seidu Agongo and Agricult Ghana Limited,the witness was asked whether she had had any personal dealings with the accused person but the witness answered in the negative.

On this note, the case was adjourned to October 13 for continuation.

Dr Opuni and Mr Seidu Agogngo are facing 27 charges, including defrauding by false pretences, wilfully causing financial loss to the state, money laundering, corruption by public officer and contravention of the Public Procurement Act.

They have both pleaded not guilty to the charges and are on a GHS300,000.00 self-recognisance bail each.