Ghana’s Supreme Court has rejected an application by the lawyers of the former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod), Dr Stephen Opuni, through which he sought special leave to appeal against a decision of the Court of Appeal which rejected a ‘stay of proceedings’ in his trial.
The lawyers of Dr Opuni failed to make a convincing argument as to why the application should be granted, the Justices said in their ruling.
The dismissed application was filed at the Supreme Court after an attempt by Dr Opuni’s legal team to tender a letter in evidence through a witness was rejected at the high court and a subsequent appeal at the Court of Appeal was also dismissed.
The said letter, dated 20 November 2014, according to the lawyers, was sent from Cocobod to Agricult Limited and referred to Lithovit Foliar Fertiliser (LFF), the agrochemical at the centre of the trial, as a liquid substance.
Dr Opuni and businessman Seidu Agongo are facing 27 counts including defrauding by false pretences, willfully causing financial loss to the state, money laundering, corruption by a public officer and contravention of the Public Procurement Act.