The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has released an audio recording of a telephone conversation said to have privately taken place between Ghana’s Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, and an accused person, Richard Jakpa, regarding an ongoing financial crime trial.
The NDC released and played the recording Tuesday (today) at a televised press conference held at its national headquarters in Accra.
Jakpa is a third accused person in an ambulance purchase trial that has the Minority Leader in Parliament, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, as the first accused person.
The third accused person had alleged last week that the Attorney-General had been engaging him in telephone conversations at odd hours during which he sought to coach him on how to implicate the Minority Leader in the trial.
Speaking to the contents of the recording, the NDC remarked that the Attorney-General asked the third accused person to fake a medical report to slow down the trial because he (Attorney-General) would be out of the country and would like to be around at the time the third accused person would be in the witness box.
The party’s National Chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, stated that the recordings had “exposed the Attorney-General’s criminal-mindedness and lack of integrity”.
“It is clear from the tape recording that Godfred Dame was communicating with the third accused, Richard Jakpa, on the blind side of his lawyer as well as the court and he was attempting to compromise Jakpa in order to wrongly convict Dr. Ato Forson. This is a cardinal sin against the legal profession,” said the NDC in a statement read at the conference by the national chairman.
The NDC also showed screenshots of some WhatsApp chats that reportedly took place between the Attorney-General and the third accused person at “odd hours”.
The third accused person is heard in the recording consistently saying it was against his conscience to make false claims against the first accused person.
The NDC stated that there had not been any plea bargain agreement proposal between the third accused person and the Attorney-General, contrary to the Attorney-General’s earlier claim. The NDC said the Attorney-General rather sought to bargain with the third accused person.
The NDC ended the press conference describing the Attorney-General as “a danger to justice and fairness” and calling for his immediate disbarment as a lawyer as well as resignation and dismissal as Attorney-General and Minister for Justice.
The party also disclosed its intention to prosecute the Attorney-General under a future NDC government.
Below are screenshots of the reported WhatsApp chats between the Attorney-General and the Third Accused Person:
The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) told journalists at a separate press conference held soon after that the recording released by the NDC was doctored and stated that the Attorney-General would not resign from government.
Source: Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org
