[1] He was elected member of parliament for Manhyia constituency and was Minister of Agriculture in the Busia regime from 1969 to 1972; it was during his tenure that Ghana exported rice for the first time in 1970.
[2][3][4] During the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) era, Dr. Safo-Adu was arrested and put in the James Fort Prison in Accra for three weeks.
Kwamena Bartels who was a co-director of the company was also arrested in mid-1990 and charged based on a report by the National Investigations Committees, which was responsible for initiating prosecutions before the public tribunals.
The tribunal, chaired by Kweku Boakye-Danquah, ruled that the loans he secured could not be regarded in law as public property, adding that the charges were misconceived and disclosed no crime.
The charges, he explained, arose out of civil contracts arising from agreements between his company and the state-owned National Investment Bank.