Frank Davies
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has rejected the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC)’s call for the Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, to quit over “doctored tape.”
According to the ruling party, the AG will not resign since he continues to be “witty, resolute, and focused in the delivery of his work.”
Addressing the media in Accra yesterday, NPP Director of Legal and Constitutional Affairs, Frank Davies, stated that the calls were misplaced as the claims against the AG are fabrications made by the NDC and the third accused person, Richard Jakpa.
He said that if the NDC believes that Minority Leader Ato Forson has no case to answer for “willfully causing financial loss to the state,” the party should remain in silence and trust the judicial system to declare him innocent.
Mr. Davies denounced the claims against the AG as “malicious orchestrations” that aim to undermine the judicial system.
He said, “We are clear in our minds that the call for the resignation of the Attorney General is misplaced, unwarranted and this would not put any spokes in the prosecution of Cassiel Ato Forson and his associates.”
“Also, coming from the NDC, the call for the Attorney General to resign is very, very rich,” the NPP Director of Legal and Constitutional Affairs asserted.
He stated that the Attorney General has never approached the third accused for a talk, let alone asked him to skew his testimony against the first accused, Cassiel Ato Forson.
According to Frank Davies, the Attorney General’s only encounter with the third accused occurred at the residence of a Supreme Court Judge, Justice Emmanuel Yonny Kulendi, who had sought to see the AG.
He said that it was not unusual for the Attorney General to pay a visit to the said Justice upon request, especially as the two had been friends prior to Godfred Yeboah Dame’s appointment as Attorney General.
He further stated that Richard Jakpa’s assertions that the AG visited with him privately at odd hours, both in person and over the phone, to cajole him into testifying against Ato Forson are completely contradictory to the facts.
He said it is unacceptable for the NDC National Chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, to run a commentary over an alleged secret tape to prevent Ghanaians from reaching their own deduction and reasoned conclusion.
“Again, even though from the screenshots displayed, the alleged conversation is 26 minutes, the NDC schemed to play only 16 minutes. The question then is, where is the rest of the tape?” he quizzed.
Tape Highly Doctored
Meanwhile, sources within the government have told DAILY GUIDE that the tape played by the NDC during its press conference is “highly doctored.”
“That is why they spent so long a time releasing it. They met in Julius Debrah’s office on Friday to plan it, and to take Kulendi’s voice out,” one source said and added that the AG had never met Jakpa anywhere, apart from Kulendi’s house.
“Kulendi convened the meetings at Jakpa’s instance. The tape shows that contrary to their claim, he (AG) has never asked him to or plotted with him to falsify evidence,” the source added.
“Most of the time, he agreed with the AG. A few times, he disagreed, which is fine. Dame never forced or coerced him to do otherwise,” another source indicated.
The source claimed, the effort by Jakpa to entrap AG and record him was a result of his frustration by the AG’s unwillingness to stop his prosecution.
“Why has he not produced the tapes of the other meetings in Kulendi’s house at which he was pleading with the AG to stop his prosecution, or parts of the last conversation in Kulendi’s house in which the issue of the refusal of his plea bargaining occurred?
“Clearly, he came to that meeting with a recorder and set him (AG) up in his cousin’s house because Dame had always refused to stop his prosecution,” the source intimated.
Telephone Conversation
The source said the telephone conversation centred around a request for adjournment by the AG since Jakpa had been absent from court the previous adjourned date as he was unwell.
“That is all. He, at that time, did not have a lawyer. He went to court that day with a new lawyer. AG could not attend because he was engaged as he had indicated to him.
“The case was adjourned anyway. It was the conversation in Kulendi’s house in which the issue of the refusal of his plea bargaining occurred, which led Dame to say that he would require him to speak the truth as a condition for him agreeing to any plea bargaining proposal.
“And that, for instance, Dame would show him documents already tendered at the trial and would expect him (Jakpa) to answer, as can reasonably be inferred from their contents,” DAILY GUIDE gathered.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah