Kwasi Afrifa
The Police Administration on Monday interrogated the lawyer who allegedly started the $5 million bribe allegation against the Chief Justice, Kwasi Anin Yeboah, which he (CJ) has described as spurious.
The police is investigating the so-called bribe issue at the instance of the Chief Justice, who through the Judicial Secretary, filed an official complaint for a probe last week.
DAILY GUIDE checks showed that the lawyer, Kwasi Afrifa, was grilled by the Financial Fraud Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) before leaving the police headquarters around 2:00 pm after he had entered there at about 9:30 am.
When journalists wanted to know what transpired, Mr. Afrifa said “it depends on the CID. Please get your information from them.”
He then said “I came here voluntarily. Nobody arrested me,” before telling the journalists to find out from the CID when he is expected to report to them again.
“I have no information. It has to be with the CID. All that I will say is that I have not done anything wrong. If you look at the accusations against me, I have given my response. The response is not public knowledge so I don’t have anything to say.”
Probe Directive
The Chief Justice, last week directed that a formal complaint be made to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to probe allegation of bribery levelled against him.
The allegation involved a private legal practitioner, Kwasi Afrifa of O & A Legal Consult and his client Ogyeedom Obranu Kwesi Atta VI.
According to the chief, the lawyer allegedly demanded $100,000 to do ‘ways and means’ for his case to receive favourable judgment in court, but upon realising that the lawyer was defrauding him, reported him to the General Legal Council for disciplinary action.
The lawyer in turn claimed that his client (chief) once told him that Justice Anin Yeboah demanded a bribe of US$5 million from him (Ogyeedom) to ensure a successful outcome of his case.
The chief later said the lawyer, who he said, he fired from the case, has refunded about $40,000 to him and also claimed that he fired him because he realised the lawyer apart from messing up his case, also harboured some hatred for the Chief Justice.
At a point, popular lawyer Akoto Ampaw popularly called Sheshe, was dragged into the case after the chief said he fired Mr. Afrifa and replaced him with Mr. Ampaw in his case.
Judicial Secretary
The Judicial Secretary, Justice Cynthia Pamela Addo, in a letter to the Inspector General of Police and copied to the media, said the Chief Justice is moving to ensure that the matter is fully investigated, and any necessary action thereof.
The letter also indicated that the Chief Justice had further directed that a petition be lodged with the Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Council (GLC) in respect of the specific matter, noting that he is “available to assist with all investigations into this matter, while he considers his own civil legal options to ensure that this matter is dealt with to its logical conclusions.”
Firing Back
In the ensuing heat, Mr. Akoto Ampaw has reacted angrily asking Mr. Afrifa to leave him out of his “crazy, diabolical, judicial bribery scandal,” and said he will not “permit anyone to sully my name on the altar of politics or personal convenience.”
“For the record, I wish to state, without any equivocation, that the only dealings I have had with the Chief Justice in this matter have been in open court as the lawyer for Ogyeedom. Beyond that I have had no dealings whatsoever with the Chief Justice in this matter.
“Furthermore, even though, of course, I have known the Chief Justice since his law student days in the 1970’s, once he became a judge, I have kept my respectful and studious distance from him, as I have from other justices of the Supreme Court, past and present, even if they may have been my friends in school,” he said.
Setting Records
Giving an account of how he became counsel for Ogyeedom, Akoto Ampaw said some time at the end of July, 2020, Ogyeedom came to see him with a request to prosecute his case in the Supreme Court for him.
“I indicated that it would be foolhardy on my part to take over a case before the Supreme Court that was to be heard in some two to three days’ time. I therefore, urged him to still rely on his current legal team in the pending application and, if thereafter, he still wanted my professional services, I would be ready to hear him out.”
He said later, during the legal vacation, last year, the chief came back to consult with him and, with much reluctance, he agreed to take up the brief and filed notice of change of lawyer at the Supreme Court sometime in October, 2020.
The lawyer said that on March 31, 2021, the Supreme Court granted the application by a four to one majority ruling.
“Incidentally, the Chief Justice, who, according to lawyer Afrifa’s yarn, wanted me to be engaged as lawyer in the matter to facilitate an outcome favourable to my client, was the dissenting judge out of a panel of five. The records are there for anyone to access, including the media,” he stressed.
Political Twist
He said that “I had originally taken the view that the oblique insinuations in lawyer Afrifa’s response, which fortuitously became public almost immediately after he had written to the Council, were so infantile and preposterous that they did not deserve the dignity of a response from me. But Ghana being what it is, tomorrow, people might say, but Akoto Ampaw did not deny the allegations, so my reaction.”
Mr. Akoto Ampaw said that “I am also well aware that almost everything is now reduced to ugly partisan party politics, and that the main political parties will not lose an opportunity to have a go at each other, on the slightest of occasion, however tenuous the evidential basis. I can, however, assure Ghanaians that I am definitely not one of those who have lost their values and are ready to sell their soul to the God of money and political power.”
He said, “I have been involved in national life for over forty years now, and if it had been my desire to make money out of politics at the expense of the interests of our people, I would have done so long, long ago,” adding “Even more preposterous is the infantile idea that I would collude with anyone, much more the Chief Justice of our Republic, to subvert the cause of justice. I will therefore not permit any one to sully my name on the altar of politics or personal convenience.”
“In particular, I wish to have it on record that I reserve all my legal rights and options occasioned by lawyer Afrifa’s scandalous and defamatory publication of, and concerning me,” he added.
By Ernest Kofi Adu & Gibril Abdul Razak