Five people arrested recently by the Police for allegedly re-bagging inferior rice into “Uncle Sam” rice bags for sale to the public at Teshie Tsui-bleoo on Friday appeared before an Accra Circuit Court.
They are; Jerry Offei, a businessman, Kortey Kwartelai, a carpenter, Emmanuel Odoi, unemployed, Tahir Yakubu and Rebecca Atalitemi Awoeun, a student.
They were charged with conspiracy to counterfeiting trade mark and deceit of consumers contrary to the Food and Drugs Law.
The accused persons pleaded not guilty and were granted various bail terms.
Kwartelai, Odoi, Yakubu and Awoeun were admitted to GHc15,000 bail with two sureties each while Offei was granted GH¢4,000 bail with two sureties who must be public servants. The case was adjourned to July 18.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Kofi Blagodzi, prosecuting, told the court that the complainant was the Director of CCT Ghana Limited registered distributors of “Uncle Sam” rice in Ghana situated at Spintex road.
He said for sometime now the complainant’s company had been receiving several complaints from the public about the introduction of poor quality Uncle Sam rice on the market.
DSP Blagodzi said the management therefore informed the public of the problem and requested for information to arrest the culprits through the media.
He said on June 8, this year, upon a tip off, the complainant sought the assistance of the Police to arrest all the accused persons who were re-bagging inferior rice into Uncle Sam rice bags at a warehouse near Teshie Tsui-bleoo to sell to the consuming public.
The prosecutor said the Police found at the warehouse 200 bags of sealed and 150 bags of unsealed Uncle Sam rice, 32 bags of Golden perfume rice, 64 bags of Royal Aroma rice and some quantity of empty Uncle Sam rice bags.
In addition, the Police found a quantity of paper seal, a sealing machine and three booklets of invoices.
DSP Blagodzi said further investigations revealed that the first accused Offei credited 100 bags of Golden Perfume and 50 bags of Royal Aroma rice from one Felicia Offei with the view of going to distribute the rice to schools.
He said Offei engaged the assistance of Kwartelai, Odoi and Awoeun in the re-bagging as well as Yakubu owner of the sealing machine to seal the re-bagged rice during the operation.