Richard Jakpa Lied- Dame on Ato Forson Implication Disclosure
The Office of the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice has emphatically denied allegations that Godfred Yeboah Dame has been impressing on the third accused in the “Ato Forson Ambulance” trial, Richard Jakpa to implicate and secure a conviction of the first accused, Cassiel Ato Forson.
According to him, Jakpa lied to the court.
A statement released by the A-G said the state has solely relied on the record of the transaction throughout the court proceedings. A record which existed before January 2022 when the case commenced and was duly filed in Court by the prosecution before the commencement of the trial.
“The Republic has never required or desired the cooperation of any of the accused persons in the matter, in which it has already succeeded in establishing a prima facie case against all the accused persons. Neither the Attorney-General nor any officer from the Office of the Attorney-General has approached any of the accused persons with the view to obtaining evidence from them.”
Allegation
In court on May 23 when the third accused in the ambulance trial mounted the witness box to defend himself against the charge of causing €2.37 million financial loss to the state in a deal to purchase 200 ambulances for the country between 2014 and 2016, he said the A-G has been impressing on him to implicate the first accused who is the Minority Leader, Cassiel Ato Forson.
“The A-G has on several occasions engaged me at odd hours to help him make a case against A1 and I have evidence for that…If he pushes me, I will open the Pandora’s box. I don’t understand why the A-G will accuse me of defending A1 when I’m here to defend myself. If he pushes me, I’ll open the Pandora’s box. I have evidence to all this.”
NDC Reaction
In response to the allegation, the National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia said they were “scandalized” by the revelation.
To them, the development proves the A-G’s lack of integrity and quest to “manipulate judicial processes to unjustly victimise political opponents for cheap political goal-scoring”.
