Director of legal affairs for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Edudzi Tamekloe, has challenged the Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, to mount the witness stand in the ongoing ambulance trial.
This follows the Attorney General’s call for the public to reject what he described as falsehoods and misrepresentations by the NDC in the ambulance case.
Speaking at a town hall meeting in the UK, Mr Dame stated that the allegation being put forward by members of the NDC and the third accused person, Richard Jakpa, about his conduct in the case had been proven wrong since the cross-examination of Jakpa started.
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In response, Mr. Tamekloe said if the Attorney General had nothing to hide, he should testify under oath.
“If the Attorney General was doing what is right, why was he worried as to whether anybody was recording him or not? This bravery from a safe distance should be dismissed with alacrity. You leave Ghana, you go to London and start making noise.
“If he is a man, nothing precludes him from taking the witness stand. That I am a man, I am Godfred Yeboah Dame, the leader of the Bar and the Attorney General of the Republic and I am taking the witness stand.
“You have not disputed that there was a meeting between your good self, Richard Jakpa and the respected Justice of the Supreme Court. You have not denied it. So my question to him, in the absence of any denial on oath from him, which of these stories should be believed?”
Richard Jakpa, the third defendant in the ambulance trial, testified under oath in his witness statement that the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, had several conversations with him during which Mr Dame assured him of his innocence and guaranteed his acquittal.
Mr Jakpa alleges that the Attorney General confided in him that his inclusion in the prosecution was a disguise to obscure the trial’s true objectives.
He asserted that Mr Dame initiated the action due to pressure from President Akufo-Addo and former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta to persecute Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, who was deputy finance minister at the time and is now the Minority Leader.
This has since generated conversations among Ghanaians, with some people calling for the resignation of the Attorney General.
The businessman, Mr Jakpa, is standing trial with Minority Leader Cassiel Ato Forson for causing the state a €2.3 million loss in an ambulance deal.
The accused persons are to answer five counts of wilfully causing financial loss to the state, abetment to wilfully causing financial loss to the state, contravention of the Public Procurement Act, and intentionally misapplying public property.