The Western Regional Police Command has rearrested four persons discharged by the Takoradi Habour Circuit Court B for lack of facts to support their charge.
They had been charged with Causing Financial Loss to the State after their arrest on Sunday 11th September.
They were in possession of 328 bags of state-subsidized cocoa fertilizers at Sameraboi.
The presiding Judge, Her Honour, Abigail Asare who discharged the four suspects, namely Kingsley Baah Wiredu, 32 years, Amadu Combat, 55, Dawuda Yakubu, 44 and Issaka Mbawur, 38, told the Police prosecutor, Superintendent Steven Addom to get an appropriate charge that supports the facts or look for the alleged farmers who sold the subsidized cocoa fertilisers to the suspects.
“I don’t find the facts support the charge of Causing Financial Loss to the State. Look at Section 127 of the Criminal Code. I will discharge them, and you get the farmers who sold the fertilizer or present the facts that support the charge,“ she said.
Speaking to Citi News after the proceedings, the Director of Special Services at the Ghana Cocobod, Charles Amenyaglo who led the Cocobod team to the court said the suspects are persons who have decided to make a business out of the subsidized cocoa fertilizers.
Charles Amenyaglo, therefore, said Cocobod would assist the police to get the needed information to prefer appropriate charges against the suspects by the next sitting of 27th September 2022.
“I am not surprised the court discharged them because this is a fluid situation and if someone who doesn’t understand our operation well takes the matter up without proper investigation, it will look to the court as if the charges are not being supported by the facts and this is what has happened today.“
The Director of Cocobod’s Special Services further complained about the negative impact of such smuggling activities on its growth plans.
“We have to increase our yield but our lands are depleting of nutrients. So Cocobod’s main aim is that you can have a farm size of about 2-3 acres that when you apply the fertilizers you will have more yield. If you adopt the first agronomy practices you will get more than someone who has expanded. So if the subsidized fertilizers are sold out by smugglers, then its means, that our aim of increasing production would not be attained”, he noted.