Richard Jakpa and Justice Kulendi
A private citizen has petitioned the Director General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to investigate Justice Yonny Kulendi of the Supreme Court and Richard Jakpa, Director of Operations at the National Security Council, for allegedly conspiring to interfere with the administration of justice in the ambulance trial.
According to the petition filed by Daniel Marfo Ofori-Atta, Jakpa right from the beginning of the trial in January 2022, allegedly deployed the highly influential Justice Kulendi “to obstruct the course of justice in the case with the ultimate object of ensuring that the prosecution of Richard Jakpa was either abated by the then Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, or he (Jakpa) was acquitted.”
It indicates that the acts of Justice Kulendi and Richard Jakpa border on the commission of crimes relating to interference with legal proceedings.
This is the second petition the CID has received in respect of the ambulance trial in which Jakpa and Finance Minister, Dr. Casiel Ato Forson, were accused of 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.
The two were acquitted by the trial court after the Court of Appeal granted their appeal challenging the decision of the High Court which ordered them to open their defence, after it found that the Attorney General had made a prima facie case against them.
Jakpa has petitioned the CID to investigate former Attorney General, alleging he fabricated evidence in the trial. Mr. Dame is expected to appear before the CID today.
Second Petition
The petition filed by Daniel Marfo Ofori-Atta on September 29, 2025, detailed court proceedings capturing Jakpa telling the court under cross-examination how he contacted Justice Kulendi, who is his cousin, to assist him in the ongoing trial.
For instance, the petition points out that on January 18, 2022, after Richard Jakpa had been arraigned in court, he solicited the help of Justice Kulendi, to procure the assistance of the then Attorney General “to facilitate the release of Richard Jakpa when he had not satisfied the conditions of the bail granted to him.”
“Justice Kulendi actually went to the office of the former Attorney General, Godfred Dame, to request that his cousin be permitted to go home,” the petition indicated.
It also pointed a proceeding where Richard Jakpa “confessed” to obtaining the telephone number of Mr. Dame from Justice Kulendi, after which he confidently attempted to meet with Mr. Dame and inundated him with many WhatsApp messages.
“The evidence shows that from the time Richard Jakpa first got in touch with Attorney-General Godfred Dame via WhatsApp, he sent in all sixty-eight (68) WhatsApp messages to him, in reply to which the then Attorney-General sent only two (2). Richard Jakpa confirmed this under cross-examination by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mrs. Yvonne Atakora-Obuobisa,” the petition noted.
Again, the petition alleged that Justice Kulendi “lured” Mr. Dame into a meeting at his (Justice Kulendi’s) home to meet Jakpa after Jakpa’s several attempts to get the former Attorney General to meet him in person failed.
“Indeed, the record showed that apart from inside the courtroom and the house of Justice Yonny Kulendi, Mr. Godfred Dame has never met Mr. Richard Jakpa anywhere,” the petition stated.
These, the petition alleged, show “a calculated effort by the learned Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Yonny Kulendi together with his cousin, Richard Jakpa, to interfere in the prosecution of the criminal case filed against Richard Jakpa by the Republic of Ghana.
“This is not only dishonourable but also borders on the commission of crimes in accordance with the Criminal and Other Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29),” it added.
The petitioner, therefore, urged the CID to commence investigations into the conduct of Justice Yonny Kulendi and his cousin, Richard Jakpa, to unravel all acts of criminality disclosed by their conduct, and take such prosecutorial action as is consistent with law.
By Gibril Abdul Razak