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Counsel for former COCOBOD CEO says he is confident his client, Dr. Stephen Opuni, will walk free in spite of the 27 charges against him.
Picking on one of the charges – collecting a bribe – Victor Koojogah Adawudu told reporters, Dr. Stephen Opuni is too well paid to collect ¢25,000 as a bribe.
“Somebody whose salary is about triple what they said he has been bribed with?..it doesn’t really gel”, he dismissed the Attorney-General’s statement of claim.
The Attorney-General has said the COCOBOD CEO faces 25 years in jail for taking a bribe.
Adawudu also expressed optimism that all the charges including money-laundering, corruption, defrauding by false pretence and abetment of crime will ‘fall flat” after they are finished with their defence.
Dr. Opuni has also been accused of misrepresenting facts to the Public Procurement Authority in his efforts to ensure Agricult Ghana obtained the contracts unfairly.
But his lawyer told the press, the Attorney-General had a representative on the tender committee that approved all three contracts.
He said the support from several former government ministers and a host of National Democratic Congress (NDC) supporters was because they believe the charges are wrong.
“You will see party people coming in because they know that Opuni served the party and served the nation,” Mr Adawudu said.
The legal practitioner said the negative narrative in the public about Dr. Opuni and Seidu Agongo will change at the end of the trial.
He maintained “we believe that the end of this trial we will see that Dr. Opuni and Seidu Agongo did their best.
“Instead of people condemning [them], I am sure they will pour showers of praises that they have served this nation well”.
The former COCOBOD CEO Dr. Stephen Opuni has been charged with willfully causing financial loss to the state to the tune of ¢217million in three separate contracts for the supply of fertilisers from Germany.
The state is prepared to prove that Dr. Stpehen Opuni knew businessman, Seidu Agongo and his Agricult Ghana Ltd were in no position to supply the fertilisers but went ahead to sign the contracts.
By: Myjoyonline.com
