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The Nkawie Circuit Court Presided by Michael Johnson Abbey has remanded an agro chemical seller into police custody for 17 days on the accusation of selling fake AF Confidence insecticides to farmers.
The accused, Atta Kwadwo who operates an agro chemical shop at Kejetia and lives at Ohwim all in Kumasi, capital of Ashanti Region and pleaded not guilty to the counts leveled against him is to reappear before the court on 29th October, 2020 after the court refused to grant him bill requested by his counsel.
According to the Prosecutor, DSP Sylvanus Dalmeida of the I/C Legal and Prosecution Nkawie Unit, in December 2019, the witness, Issifu Ibrahim who is a cocoa farmer in the Western Region and a regular buyer of the insecticides produced by New OKAFF Industries Limited was given Gh.900.00 by a colleague (Kwaku) at Tarkwa – Breman to buy six gallons of the said product for him.
DSP Dalmeida explained to the court that the Witness on receipt of the said amount called the office of the company which is located at Abuakwa in attempt to purchase the product but could not reach them on phone so he therefore decided to get some in town.
The Prosecutor disclosed that the witness went to Kejetia in search of the product and landed himself at shop of the accused where he found some of the products and made the purchase for his colleague (Kwaku).
” Kwaku sprayed his cocoa farm with the the said insecticides and noticed that the insects did not die as expected and prescribed so he returned them to the witness and informed him of his experience ” the Prosecutor stated.
He (Prosecutor) said, to text the truthfulness of Kwaku, he put an insect in the product purchased from the accused and it did not die. When the witness put another insect in New OKAFF Industries Limited it died implying the one purchased from the accused is fake.
He narrated on 31st December, 2019 the witness took the six gallons of the products to complainant, Richard Karikari who is the Production Manager of the company in an attempt to arrest the accused person and also to lodged complaint to that effect.
He disclosed that the complainant in turn lodged complaint to the Abuakwa Police Station and by the kind courtesy of the witness the police was able to locate and apprehend the accused. ” We found three cartoons of purported AF Confidence Insecticides with New OKAFF Industries Limited logo embossed on the products ” he mentioned.
” The accused person was consequently arrested together with the exhibits and brought to the Abuakwa Police Station for investigation ” DSP Dalmeida revealed.
He added that samples of the product from the complainant’s company and that of those retrieved from the accused person were sent to Ghana Standards Authority in Accra for testing and veracity.
DSP Dalmeida hinted that on 11th August 2020, a report was received from Ghana Standards Authority on the two products which indicated that, the product from the complainant’s company contained 40.2 Bifenthrin substance which falls within the standard and approved contents of Bifenthrin to be contained in an insectcide of that nature.
” However, the report on the products retrieved from the accused person indicates that the products contained 59.7 to 270.4 Bifenthrin which exceeds the standard and approved content making them hazardous for human use ” he revealed.
He ended by saying, investigation also established that the accused person’s products were not registered and approved by the Food and Drugs Authority as required by law.
By Sammy Asare, Ashanti Region
