The Attorney General’s office has denied allegations that it is coercing the third accused person, Richard Jakpa, in the trial of Minority Leader, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson.
This rebuttal comes in response to claims made by Jakpa, who alleged that the Attorney-General had approached him to fabricate evidence against Dr Ato Forson, the former Deputy Finance Minister, to secure a conviction.
During the continuation of the ambulance purchase trial, Jakpa, under cross-examination, stated: “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,” he added on Thursday, May 23.
This led to accusations from the NDC and concerned Ghanaians that the state was persecuting Dr Forson, a critic of the current government’s policies, with the intent to jail him at all costs.
But in a statement on Thursday, the office asserted that Attorney General Godfred Dame has never sought to coerce the third accused, Richard Jakpa, into providing false testimony against the NDC MP.
“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, signed by Deputy Attorney-General Alfred Tuah Yeboah, emphasized that neither the Attorney-General nor any officer from his office has approached any of the accused with the intent to obtain false testimony.
“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.”
