Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) Anti-smuggling Task Force in collaboration with the security agencies, has within two weeks, retrieved over 1,500 bags of cocoa, en route to being smuggled to neighbouring countries.
According to the Director of Special Services at COCOBOD, Mr. Charles Amenyaglo, the win scored against smugglers between the first two weeks of March was through a system instituted by COCOBOD, which comes with incentives for collaborators.
He disclosed that the beans originated from the Western North and Volta regions while arrests were made in the Greater Accra, Volta and Western North regions during the transit of the cocoa beans.
In the Greater Accra region, the Mamprobi Police Unit on March 6, following a tip-off intercepted 508 bags of standard cocoa beans and 72 bags of cocoa waste beans which were transported from Sefwi Bekwai in a Howo Truck with registration number GS 854-21.
The driver, Abdul Rahman Amadu alleged that he was contracted at a lorry station to load the cocoa beans to Accra.
He was in the process of re-bagging the beans from jute sacks into polythene sacks in order to evade security checks when he was arrested at a school in Mamprobi, which served as the offloading point.
Rahman and two others believed to be labourers have been granted bail with one surety each and are to reappear before Circuit Court 6 in Accra on April 13.
According to Mr Charles Amenyaglo, the cocoa beans were released to COCOBOD the next day to prevent deterioration.
“The beans were not thoroughly dried before they were transported and some were drenched in rainwater through transit. We had to immediately evacuate them to our Take-Over Centre at Tema for drying, reconditioning and rebagging.”
Following this, 511 bags of good cocoa beans, weighed 64kg per bag and 123 bags of waste cocoa beans weighed 50kg per bag were collected.
The Anti-Smuggling Taskforce of COCOBOD also saved about 399 bags of cocoa beans from smugglers who were carting them from Dunkwa-on-Offin and Sefwi Bekwai in the Western North region to the Ivory Coast on March 13.
The trucks with registration numbers, AS 885 – 19 and AS 7457 – 17 have been impounded while the drivers have been granted police enquiry bail pending further investigations.
Meanwhile, a 42-year-old Nigerian national, Isaac Oluwaje who claims ownership of 406 bags of cocoa beans, which was intercepted by a surveillance team of the Special Services Directorate of COCOBOD while being conveyed to Togo through the Volta region, has also been arrested.
Oluwaje claims he bought the cocoa through a business contact at Bonsu Nkwanta in the Western North region for reselling in Togo.
Together with the driver of the track with registration number GX 7632 – 14, Oluwaje had rebagged some of the cocoa beans in poly sacks to avoid detection.
Both are still in Police custody after failing to meet bail conditions following arraignment before the court.
Also in the Volta region, a Circuit Court in Denu has remanded two suspected cocoa smugglers into custody.
The suspects, the acclaimed owner of the beans, Ebenezer Tetteh and a truck driver, Francis Awuah were arrested on March 13 following a collaborative operation between COCOBOD and the Aflao Command of the National Investigation Bureau (NIB).
The truck with registration number GX 8579 – 22 moved uninterrupted through the Tema Motorway in the Greater Accra region to the Volta region where they were arrested while crossing Ghana’s major border post to Togo.
Mr. Amenyaglo described it as worrying, that discreet checks showed that the truck drove past officials of other State Security Agencies unchecked until it was stopped by an NIB officer at the border.
He also disclosed that attempts were made to influence the officer with an amount of 25,000 cedis to release the truck of cocoa beans.
He said COCOBOD will continue to work with Security Agencies to thwart the efforts of smugglers and called for the public to volunteer information to help arrest culprits. He assured of anonymity and reward for all informants.
In Ghana, the law requires Cocoa farmers to sell their cocoa beans to certified Purchasing Clerks who act as agents of the Cocoa Marketing Company, a subsidiary of COCOBOD that oversees the purchase of cocoa beans on behalf of the government.
SOURCE:FINDER
