The Odumase-Krobo Circuit Court has sentenced a cocoa buyer to seven years in prison with hard labour for attempting to smuggle bags of cocoa beans into Togo.
Issifu Nyandi, who pleaded guilty to purchasing cocoa without authority, attempting to smuggle cocoa beans and attempting to export cocoa beans which had been inspected, graded and sealed by an inspector of cocoa, was sentenced accordingly.
The prosecution told the court presided over by Mr Kwesi Apiatse Abaiddu that on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, Nyandi was arrested with the bags of cocoa beans by the Anti-cocoa Smuggling Taskforce while on board a Ho bound Ford Transit bus with the registration number GG 2749-21.
It said upon a tip-off, he was intercepted by the task force at about 1700 hours.
A search on the bus revealed six bags of the cocoa beans concealed in poly sacks.
The Court heard Nyandi accepted ownership of the goods, confessing that he brought the beans from the Eastern Region and sent them to Tudu in Accra to sell the bags in Togo.
Nyandi was then handed over to the Akosombo Police and was arraigned after investigations.
In passing the sentence, the judge highlighted the spate of the cocoa smuggling in recent times.
He commended the swift nature with which the taskforce thwarted the nefarious activity of the convict and others who were convicted by the Court a week earlier, and also thanked the Ghana Cocoa Board and other security authorities for their alertness and resolve to combat criminal activities that continue to harm Ghana’s cocoa industry.
Source: GNA