Samuel Torbi, a farmer who was adjudged the National Best Young Farmer in 2013 has told the High Court in Accra that he was trained to be truthful at all time.
Samuel Torbi, who is testifying as the 2nd Defence Witness for the former Chief Executive of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) Dr Stephen Kwabena Opuni said he could not lie to the court.
Dr Opuni, Seidu Agongo, the CEO of Agricult Ghana Limited and his company are facing charges for allegedly causing financial loss to the state in the sum of over GHc217M.
They have all pleaded not guilty to the charges and have been granted self recognisance bail by the court.
Responding to questions from the prosecution under cross-examination from the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), the witness explained to the court the difference between Lithovit liquid fertiliser and Akate, a pesticide.
While being confronted by the DPP on the quantity of fertilizers received as against what captured in his waybill, the witness took turns to explain things to the court.
It has been the contention of the prosecution that Lithovit liquid fertilizer purchased by COCOBOD under Dr. Opuni was worthless and that was a waste of resources of the state.
The state prior to closing its case, called seven witnesses but none was a farmer.
In his evidence-in-chief, Samuel Torbi, who is a witness tendered in evidence of a distribution waybill given to him by the Cocoa Health Extension Division (CHED) of COCOBOD in 2016 on some agrochemicals, including Lithovit liquid fertilizer.
Cross-examination
Asked by the DPP, Mrs. Atakora-Obuobisa under cross-examination to tell the court the fertilizers and the amount he received from CHED on February 11, 2016, he said, “My Lord, I received 12 bottles of fertilizer.”
The DPP then accused him of deliberately leaving out in his evidence fertilizers he received apart from Lithovit fertilizer as exhibit 111 shows his received fertilizers other than Lithovit. But, the witness said, “That is not true.”
“My Lord, I didn’t write this receipt so what I was given is what is on it,” he explained.
The DPP then pointed to the Akate, to which the witness admitted receiving 48 bottles (48 litres) in addition to the 12 bottles of Lithovit.
“My Lord, there is only one fertilizer on exhibit 111. The other one written there is called Akate master. It is a pesticide and not fertilizer,” he explained to the court.
More harvest
The witness who owned over 30 acres of cocoa farm in the assin Fosu District of the Central Region had told the court how his yield was doubled when he applied Lithovit liquid fertilizer on his farm, describing the product as a “messiah”.
But Mrs. Atakora-Obuobisa challenged claims by the witness on the efficacy of Lithovit, noting that the witness’ account has “inconsistencies” and made certain “insertions” just to prove that Lithovit was good.
“My Lord what DPP is saying is not true, what I am saying is the truth. Because I have already told the court where exactly to verify the truth about my passbook from and so I am telling this court that I am not lying,” the witness noted.
Passbook
The prosecution also accused the witness of altering the passbook which he tendered in evidence as to his.
“Mr. Torbi, you are not being truthful to this court because the R, O, C K, S, O, N and that will mean Rockson and not Samuel,” Mrs. Atakora-Obuobisa noted.
But the witness disagreed saying, “my Lord I am telling the truth, I was brought up, to tell the truth. The PC who wrote my name is still alive and I can show where he is for the court to ask.”
Again, the prosecution said, “the name in the passbook is not yours because the name has been changed from Rockson to Samuel and the signature in your passbook is different from the one in your witness statement.”
But the witness disagreed. “My Lord I am explaining to the court that what the prosecution is saying is not true. My lord, with the cocoa farm I have in the Central Region if three farmers are to be selected from the Assin Fosu district, I will be first or second and so I cannot take someone’s passbook to be mine.
“I will further say that before you are given a passbook, the cocoa Clerk will send the names of farmers who need the passbook before the passbooks are issued to them. So if the PC makes mistakes in your passbook whiles filling it, you will not be issued a different passbook and so those mistakes must be corrected in the book.
“My lord most farmers do not see the mistakes that are made but I am little educated so when I saw there was a mistake in my name I told the Clerk to change it. I initially asked the PC to give me a new passbook but he refused because there is a unique code that identifies the district so he will not be able to get me a new one till the next year.
“The code on the passbook is CR126364. There is no farmer that harvests more cocoa than me and if there is doubt, my passbook can be taken back there if there is anyone called Samuel Torbi apart from me or anyone who is called her so-called Rockson Torbi.”
Source:Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/Murtala Inusah
