Richard Jakpa yesterday shocked a High Court in Accra when he disclosed that he had declared war on Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, and that it does not matter whether he is jailed or acquitted.
According to him, the Attorney General is using his law skills and knowledge to take his liberty away from him unjustly “and I’m also going to use my underworld skills to pay him and deal with him. I said use what you know best in your law and I’ll also use what I know best on the street and we will see who will survive.”
“So as far as I am concerned there is a war between the two of us whether I’m jailed or acquitted,” he stressed, adding that he was going to fight till the last drop of his blood.
Mr. Jakpa, who said his cousin jokingly calls him “diabolical man”, told the court that these were the words he told Mr. Dame during a meeting at the home of Justice Yonny Kulendi, a Justice of the Supreme Court who is a cousin to the businessman.
He told the court that his declaration of war against Mr. Dame was a result of the AG’s failure to follow through his promise that he will make sure the accused is acquitted at the submission of no case stage, which did not happen.
The accused also told the court that he had told the Attorney General at the said meeting that, he should make him a prosecution witness instead of charging him alongside Minority Leader, Dr. Ato Forson and Dr. Sylvester Anemana, a former Chief Director at the Ministry of Health who has been dropped from the case due to ill health, but the AG refused.
The court, presided over by Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, yesterday admitted the full complement of the Attorney General’s WhatsApp chat with Jakpa, in spite of objections by defence lawyers who raised concerns about its relevance and authenticity.
Trial
Richard Jakpa and Dr. Ato Forson are standing trial for willfully causing financial loss of €2.37 million to the state, through a contract to purchase 200 ambulances for the Ministry of Health, among other charges.
The ambulances, according to court documents, are ordinary buses which are not fit for purpose as they do not have the needed equipment that an ambulance requires.
War On AG
The Director of Public Prosecution, Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, during her cross-examination of the accused put it to him that it cannot be true that the Attorney General had promised him not to oppose his submission of no case because the Attorney General, two weeks prior, had himself already signed and filed a submission arguing that a sufficient case had been made against the accused persons to open a defence.
The accused, in his response, said the Attorney General’s submission was served on his lawyer and he was not aware of it, adding that his dealings with Mr. Dame were on the blind side of his lawyer as he had to “compartmentalise my dealings and engagement with the Attorney General because my engagement with the AG was strictly on need to know and share basis.”
The DPP then put it to the witness that what actually happened was that the AG had told him to enter a plea bargaining agreement if he desired, after he kept pressuring the AG to drop the charges against him.
Jakpa denied this and went on to speak at length about what he claimed transpired between him, Mr. Dame and Justice Kulendi at the home of the Supreme Court judge after he had been asked by the court to open his defence.
The accused went on to state that he told his cousin that the AG is trying to send him to jail and take his liberty as a citizen, thereby causing him pain and his reputation.
He said it was at that point that the battle line had been drawn and he told the Attorney General that he did not want the prosecution to reach its conclusion with him still an accused person, because he does not want the trial judge to have the opportunity to decide his fate because he does not trust her.
The DPP then asked him whether it was furtherance of his declaration of war on Mr. Dame that he secretly recorded their private conversation and made it public.
Mr. Jakpa said “that is not entirely true” because if the Attorney General had stayed in the protective space of Justice Kulendi, no such recording would have taken place because “I cannot engage in any recording in my cousin’s house.”
He said that would have been a mark of disrespect and a betrayal of family values, adding that so as long Mr. Dame continued arranging meetings in Justice Kulendi’s house, there would not have been any such recording.
Disclosed Documents
Mrs. Obuobisa during the cross-examination established that the Attorney General never relied on any of the documents that Jakpa had sent to Mr. Dame on July 17, 2022, because those documents had already been filed by the prosecution as far back as February 14, 2022, and served on all the accused persons and their counsels.
Jakpa had earlier stated that he gave those documents to the Attorney General as a Trojan horse evidence against the AG, adding that the AG decided to disclose some of them and left others out.
But when shown the prosecution’s documents which already included the documents he sent, the accused said it doesn’t “spoil anything” if the Attorney General had the documents and he the accused also sent him same.
WhatsApp Chat
The court yesterday admitted the full WhatsApp conversation between the AG and Jakpa after determining that it does not present any substantial danger of prejudice to anybody in the trial.
The Office of the Attorney General tendered the chats after Jakpa himself admitted that the one that was earlier tendered through him by Dr. Forson was not complete, adding that he chose those messages that he deemed would help him make his case.
Thaddeus Sory, counsel for Jakpa, had objected to the tendering of the chat, arguing that it did not include all the messages exchanged between his client and the AG.
He also argued that the messages sought to be tendered are not reliable, not authentic and enough foundation was not laid for the tendering of the documents, adding that the AG’s phone and the accused person’s phone ought to be compared.
The DPP opposed the objection and argued that accused himself had admitted that what he brought was not complete, adding that if the prosecution seeks to tender more than the selected messages, that should better help the court and should not be a ground for objection.
She added that it is not enough for counsel for accused to say the prosecution omitted messages from it without saying any specific messages that were allegedly omitted.
Justice Asare-Botwe, in her ruling, said Jakpa had admitted that what he brought was what he thought was relevant for his case and since the prosecution is putting this forward as the complete message, it would be admitted, with the court deciding what weight to put on it.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak