Richard Jakpa (left) Yonny Kulendi JSC (middle) and Godfred Dame | Jakpa photo courtesy Joy FM
Attorney-General Godfred Yeboah Dame, through his legal counsel has filed processes at the High Court opposing an application by an accused person in a high financial crimes trial.
The accused person, Richard Jakpa, earlier this week applied to the court hearing the Ambulance Case, to dismiss the charges brought against him or stay proceedings.
Jakpa, cited unethical overtures by the A-G, among others in seeking to get him to implicate a co-accused person, Cassiel Ato Forson, who is the first accused in the trial.
In his filings of May 31, 2024, A-G Dame responded copiously to the content of Jakpa's application including the issue of purported meetings he had with Jakpa in the absence of the accused's lawyers as by law required.
Paragraph 13 of the document titled: 'Affidavit in opposition to motion for an order striking out the charges and terminating the proceedings or alternatively staying the proceedings against the third accused/applicant,' also addressed the role a Supreme Court Justice played in the said meeting between the two.
Paragraph 14 said the May 23, 2024 incident where Jakpa openly accused the A-G of witness tampering in open court was part of the manipulation of facts and untruths underlying the application.
"That in specific response to paragraphs 13, 14, 15 and 16 of the affidavit in support, the Respondent says that the applicant again deliberately puts a spin on the facts surrounding the so called meeting with the Attorney-General. The Applicant knows, as has already been indicated by his counsel to the trial judge in chambers, that, it was his cousin, Yonny Kulendi JSC, who invited the Attorney-General to the distinguished Justice of the Supreme Court's residence, an invitation the Attorney-General honoured out of respect, only for the Applicant to show up," paragraph 15 read.
The following paragraph clarified: "That the respondent says that the Attorney-General has never met the Applicant anywhere outside the courtroom, except in Kulendi JSC's residence."
The A-G's position therefore aligns with that of his spokesperson, Wilberforce Mensah, and a report by pro-government Asaase Radio, that said the A-G had been 'ambushed' by Jakpa when he (Dame) was at the home of Justice Yonny Kulendi.
The A-G wants the application by Jakpa dismissed by the court describing it as "a desperate smokescreen set up” to “abort his legitimate prosecution for the role he played in causing colossal financial loss to the State.”
Dame opposes Jakpa's application
Dame replies Jakpa
SARA
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