I didn’t sign COCOSHE Card- Opuni’s witness tells court

I didn’t sign COCOSHE Card- Opuni’s witness tells court
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The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Yvonne Attakora-Obuobisa claims the second Defence Witness (DW2), Samuel Tobi has deceived the court with documents that are not his.

The documents, cocoa passbook, and COCOSHE card, which were tendered as exhibits by the witness who was testifying on behalf of Dr. Stephen Kwabena Opuni, former Chief Executive of COCOBOD, were said to be aliens to Mr. Tobi.

According to the DPP, both documents bear signatures that do not visibly correspond with the signature on DW2’s witness statement before the court.

Mrs. Attakora-Obuobisa told the court presided over by His Lordship Clemence Honyenuga on Thursday, in an attempt to discredit the witnes that Mr. Tobi allegedly presented false documents that do not bear the witness name and signature.

She further told the court that the witness has made certain claims that go to question the integrity of the documents he has tendered in evidence.

According to her, the documents, particularly the passbook does not speak to his claim that he got a higher yield, due to the use of Lithovit liquid fertilizer.

But the witness denied these assertions and explained to the court that the head of COCOSHE signed his card, hence the difference in the signatures’ appearance.

He further clarified that the signature on the passbook was his but was since changed to the current one on his witness statement.

DW2 added that the cocoa purchasing clerk misspelled his name on the passbook, a reason the latter had corrected it.

He is so industrious that he can claim the position of the first or second-best cocoa farmer of his district, Assin Fosu, and therefore, did not need to present another person’s passbook to the court.

On the issue of Lithovit liquid fertilizer efficiency, DW3 stated that records in the waybill attest to the fact that Lithovit liquid fertilizer gave him a better yield than any other fertilizer ever used on his farm.

Mr. Tobi also used the opportunity to educate the DPP on the difference between two agrochemicals – fertilizers and pesticides.

This was as the DPP had asked him, to mention to the hearing of the Criminal Division ‘1’ of the Accra High Court all fertilizers listed in the waybill for 2016.

The witness read out Lithovit liquid fertilizer but the daring DPP lamented to the court that the witness has deliberately left out another fertilizer listed in the waybill.

Mr. Tobi after realizing the DPP’s difficulty and challenge indicated to the court that the other chemical listed in the waybill was not a fertilizer but pesticide.

The DPP was cross-examining DW2 in the trial of Dr. Opuni together with Seidu Agongo and his company, Agricult Ghana Limited is facing some 27 criminal charges, including a financial loss to the State.

For interest read the following questions (Q) and answers (A):

Q. You have a witness statement, which you signed and was adopted by this court. Is that right?
A. Yes.

Q. You have also tendered in this court your passbook which you signed and tendered as exhibit 112. Is that right?
A. Yes

Q. You have also tendered you COCOSHE card as exhibit 106. Is that so?

A. Yes.


Q. Your signature on your amended witness statement is entirely different from your signature on the COCOSHE, is also different from your purported signature on the passbook, which you have tendered. Is that not so?

A. That is not so because the COCOSHE card was signed by the chief farmer at the head office and I was not the one that signed it.

Q. So the COCOSHE card which you brought before this court does not bear your signature but the signature of another person. Is that right?
A. That is so.


Q. The COCOSHE Card is, therefore, not your card because it does not bear your signature but somebody else’s signature.
A. The card belongs to me.

Q. Your signature on your witness on your witness statement is also different from the signature in the passbook. Is that not so?
A. The signature in the passbook is my signature, which I signed in 2012.

Q. Your signature in the passbook in 2012 is different from your signature on your witness statement.
A. It could be so because when I was in senior high school the name I used was Samuel Kweku Torbi. When I completed school and was not able to continue and went into farming, the signature I used in the passbook was the one inside to sign. But I later I changed my signature and the signature in my amended witness statement is what I use now.

Q. You told the court that the purchasing clerk who was the one who wrote your name. Is that right?
A. That is so.

Q. Can you tell the court the name that was written… it was corrected to Samuel Torbi?
A. Samson Torbi and I told him my name is Samuel and not Samson so he corrected it.

Q. You are not being truthful to this court. The letters that have been corrected are R,O,C,K,S,O, and N and would be pronounced as Rockson and not Samson.
A. I am telling the truth. I was brought up to tell the truth.

Q. This passbook that you have brought to this court is not yours because it does not bear the signature you signed in your amended witness statement and the name has been corrected from Rockson to Samuel.
A. That is not because the cocoa farms I have in the Central Region, if three farmers were to be selects from Assin Fosu District I will either emerge first or second best so I can’t collect someone else’s passbook and make it mine. I will further say that before you are given a passbook, a Cocoa clerk will send the names of his farmers who need passbooks before they are issued out to them. So if you make a mistake in wiring the farmer’s name you will not be issued a passbook unless the mistake is corrected in the passbook. A lot of the farmers are not educated so are unable to detect the mistakes. I have a little education so I was able to see those mistake in my name.

Q. If indeed this passbook which is so important to Cocoa farmers belongs to you as you want this court to believe you would have by now ensured a new passbook with your name correctly written in itand not with the erasures as we have it now.
A. I am explaining to the court that errors that were made in the passbook and because the passbook belongs to me I asked him to make the necessary corrections to my name. After framers are issue with passbooks, further issuances are no longer made so you cannot just ask for replacement and this is a book that cannot be gotten from the market. As I speak now no passbooks have been issued from 2019 to date.

Q. You tendered this distribution way bill which is exhibit 111?
A. Yes.

Q. What is the date?
A. 11/02/2016
Q. Can you tell the court the fertilizer you received for your farms from your way bill?
A. 12 bottles of Lithovit fertilizer.
Q. You have deliberately left out from your evidence in this court all the fertilizers you received apart from Lithovit Fertilizer as the way bill shows you revised fertilizers other than Lithovit.
A. That is not true because I was not the one who issued the receipt so what I was given is what is written on the receipt. I did not leave out anything.

Q. Look on the way bill and read out the fertilizers on the way bill.
A. There is only one fertilizer on the way bill. The other item which is Akate master, is a pesticide and not fertilizer.

Q. What is the quantity of Akate master you received on the way bill.
A. 48 litres.

Q. You said you received 48 litres. With the Lithovit did you receive 12 bottles or 12 litres.
A. I received 12 litres which we call 12 bottles.

Q. So did you also get 48 bottles of Akate master?
A. Yes.

Q. Look at page 7 of the passbook. You have told the court that you got a very high yield of cocoa beans. Is that right?
A. That is so.

Q. The yield recorded was from October 2015 to April 2016 and your yield as recorded was not affected by the Lithovit liquid fertilizer which you claimed you received in February 2016.
A. It really helped me. When we received fertilizers from the CHED office, the fertilizer is shared in groups by the community extension assistant ( CEA) and the extension officer shares the fertilizer with us farmers. I was one of the first farmers who received the Lithovit fertilizer and it worked wonders on my farm so I decided to go the CHED office myself to request for more of the lithoivt liquid fertilizer and was given 12 litres and exhibit 111 is the receipt that I kept. There are two cocoa seasons – the main season and the light season. When the first cocoa season ends we get a little cocoa yield from May.

Q. Your yields in 2015/16…. Your yields 25/10/15, 12/11/15, and 11/12/15 which was your highest yield was not affected by Lithovit liquid fertilizer because from your own amended witness statement, your passbook and the way bill you had by then not received lihovit liquid fertilizer and it was named as a fertilizer you had applied in 2014/15?
A. It is Lihovit that increased my yield. I have already mentioned that we were given some in groups and when I noticed its effectiveness I went back for more. The CEA had already given us some lithoivt liquid fertilizer and there was no way issued for the first batch.

Q. What you have just told this court is only an afterthought because in your own amended witness statement (paragraph 8), you named the fertilizers you used for 2014/15 season and they do not include lithoivt. Lifet A and Adom Granular fertilizer, which you said have you the highest yield. What is in your own witness statement is very different from what you have told the court to think that lithoivt gave you the yield when it did not.
A. That is not true. I can never lie to this court because I was raised to tell the truth.

Q. I further put it to you that the yields also in January, March and April of 2016, were also not affected by the lihovit liquid fertiliser which you receive only in February 2016 from your own records.
A. It is the Lithovit that increases my yields.

Q. In paragraph 10 of your amanded witness statement you attributed the high yields only to the 12 lihovit which you received in Feb 2016 and this shows that your highest yield was not as a result of the use lihovit liquid fertilizer, which you got only in Feb 2015.

A. It was lihovit as I have explained we farmers do not keep records and if there is any doubt, all our information can be gotten at the CHED office.

Q. I put it to you that you deliberately wrote Lithovit Foliar fertilizer against you highest yield when in fact from the records that was not the fertilizer you used.


A. That is not true. I am surprised at what counsel is saying. It was lithoivt.

Q. When you look on your passbook it has no column for agrochemicals of fertilizers used by farmers.
A. There is no column provided but because of our record keeping we have things that contribute to high yield of cocoa and the fertilizer application increases Cocoa yield so when I apply fertilizer every Cocoa season in keeping my records I want to know how the fertilizer performed so I make my purchasing clerk write the name of the fertilizer.


Q. I am putting it to you that the writing of fertilizers on the sides of your passbook were your own doing so as to tell the court that lithovit fertilizer is effective when t is not so.
A. That is not true because o made the purchasing clerk do the writing.

Q. In 2013, you were adjudged the national best young farmer which was publicised. Is that correct?
A. That is so.

Q. Is that award different from young promising cocoa farmer in 2013?
A. The certificate I received for the award is what counsel has.

Q. Is this the award you received in 2013?
A. Yes.

Q. For this award, did you receive any acknowledgment from COCOBOD officials and government officials?
A. Yes
Q. What kind of acknowledgment was it?
A. I was given 50 bags of fertilizer.

Q. Can you tell the court why you were given this award?
A. The reason was because I was a hard working farmer who followed the regulations of COCOBOD and this was to motivate the farmer and the youth to venture into farming.


Q. The time you received this award, you had not used Lithovit fertiliser. Is that right?
A. That is so

Q. You have not received any awards for 2015/16, and 2016/17 to show for the yields you claimed you earned after applying lihovit liquid fertilizer?


A. That is so. This is because it is not the quantity of cocoa harvested that merits you an award.

Q. I further put it to you that the passbook that you exhibited in this court together with your amended witness statement, your COCOSHE card which contain erasures, inconsistencies, and insertions that you put in yourself to tell the court that Lithovit liquid fertilizer gave you a good yield when indeed it was not so?
A. What the DPP is saying is not true. What I am saying is the truth.

Q. I put it to you that even the passbook is not truly your own?
A. That is not true. It is mine.

Case adjourned to June 6, for DW4 to give his testimony at 2:00pm.

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