The Attorney General’s office has denied allegations that the Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, met with the third accused person in the trial of Minority Leader, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, to implicate the latter.
A statement issued by A-G’s office said Godfred Dame has not, at any point, required the third accused person, Richard Jakpa, to coerce him into contributing falsehoods to help jail the NDC MP.
The third accused person, Richard Jakpa, in the ambulance purchase trial, revealed in an open court under cross-examination that the Attorney General approached him multiple times to help him (Dame) build a case against Minority Leader and former Deputy Finance Minister, Dr. 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,” Mr Jakpa said in court.
“If he pushes me, I’ll open the Pandora’s box. I have evidence to all this,” he said on Thursday, May 23, 2024.
But the statement from the A-G’s office said: “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.”
The statement which was signed by Deputy Attorney-General, Alfred Tuah Yeboah, explained that the office rather pointed to Mr Jakpa of being the one who “by various letters” on multiple occasions “proposed to the Republic through the Attorney-General to engage in plea bargaining or plea negotiations. This plea bargaining proposal has, to date, not been accepted by the Attorney-General.”
“Even though the law on plea bargaining passed by Parliament permits a prosecutor to negotiate with an accused person after a plea proposal has been made, the Attorney-General has not engaged the third accused person to give false testimony in the matter.
“The Attorney-General has also come under enormous pressure from all manner of persons for him to discontinue the prosecution of the 1st accused person, Cassiel Ato Forson, but has not yielded.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
