SSNIT OBS Case: Godson Ladzekpo is a 'very dangerous and treacherous character' – Court

The High Court in Accra has described the Prosecution’s star Witness Godson Ladzekpo the current SSNIT General Manager, MIS in the case in which former Director General of Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Ernest Thompson and four others were charged as “a very dangerous and treacherous character!”.

The Court said Godson Kwadzo Ladzekpo, the current General Manager in charge of SSNIT Management Information System Division, who testified as the First Prosecution Witness (PW1) in the case portrayed a “self-righteous and holier-than-thou” attitude of pointing fingers at everyone on the OBS Project Steering Committee of which he was a member.

The Court also said in an 81-page ruling on the submission of no case to answer that PW1 Godson Ladzekpo who was part of the OBS Steering Committee that approved the variations (Change Orders) on the OBS Project was aware that the Digitization of the Critical Legacy Documents at the SSNIT Records Department was not part of the OBS Contract.

Yet, PW1 Godson Ladzekpo “stood in the witness box looked at the court eye and lied through his teeth” that the digitization of the critical legacy documents was part of the OBS Contract.

Additionally, the Court stated, “It is baffling how anybody could lie on oath as the PW1 did!”.

Furthermore, the Court described Count 19 of which Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Perfect Business Systems, Juliet Hassana Kramer was charged with the offense of defrauding by false pretense as “the most bizarre”.

Ernest Thompson, former Director General, SSNIT, John Hagan Mensah, a former IT Manager at SSNIT; Juliet Hassana Kramer, CEO of Perfect Business Systems (PBS); Caleb Kwaku Afaglo, a former Head of Management Information Systems (MIS) at SSNIT and Peter Hayibor, the General Manager General Counsel of SSNIT were all charged in a combined 29 counts which related to the US$66 million SSNIT OBS project, intended to revamp SSNIT’s operations through Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

They had all pleaded not guilty to their respective charges while prosecution closed their case after parading 10 witnesses.

Ruling on a submission of no case to answer on December 3, 2024, which effectively led to the acquittal and discharge of Juliet Hassana Kramer, the CEO of Perfect Business Systems of all charges as the Prosecution was unable to establish a prima facie case against her.

Her lawyers led by Baffour Gyau Bonsu Ashia, who was holding Thaddeus Sory’s brief had held all along that, Juliet Hassana Kramer, ought not to have been charged, and the ruling of the court vindicated their stance.

In a strong-worded description of Ladzekpo who had testified as the First Prosecution Witness in the case, the Court raised doubts on his testimony.

“After having listened to all the prosecution witnesses and the cross-examination and read all the copious documents (over 300 in all), tendered by both the prosecution and the defence (through the prosecution witnesses), I am tempted to believe that the PW1 Godson Ladzekpo who was a member of the OBS Steering Committee which approved the variations, upgrades and additional hardware for the OBS Project and which resulted in the Change Orders and Requests the subject of a substantial part of the charges against the accused persons, ‘was one of the anonymous Concerned Staff of SSNIT who according to the investigator PW10 lodged the complaint culminating in the charges against the accused persons’”.

The Court said PW1 (Godson Ladzekpo) “In my view is a very dangerous and treacherous character!”