By High Court Judge Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe has advised Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Godfred Yeboah Dame to recuse himself from the ambulance procurement case involving Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson and Richard Jakpa, citing allegations of professional and prosecutorial misconduct.
JoyNews’ Latif Iddrisu reported that Godfred Dame attempted to explain himself by standing up, but the judge maintained her stance.
This decision follows separate applications filed by the first accused, Dr. Forson, and the third accused, Richard Jakpa.
The applications sought several orders, including an inquiry into the conduct of the Attorney-General, as Jakpa claimed that the Attorney-General had been contacting him at odd hours.
They also requested a mistrial to terminate the case, a stay of proceedings until the applications were determined, and a motion to strike out charges against Jakpa.
Three of these motions were filed by Dr. Ato Forson, the Minority Leader and former Deputy Finance Minister, while the last one was filed by Jakpa.
Both are on trial for allegedly causing a financial loss of €2.37 million to the state through a contract to purchase 200 ambulances for the Ministry of Health, among other charges.
Although the court declined jurisdiction to order an inquiry and declare a mistrial based on prosecutorial misconduct, it directed Dr. Ato Forson to seek redress from the General Legal Council if he wished to pursue the matter further.
Furthermore, the court admitted a telephone recording between Jakpa and the Attorney-General as evidence, overruling the Attorney-General’s objections regarding its admissibility.
This ruling is unprecedented, marking the first time a Ghanaian court has advised an Attorney-General to recuse himself from a trial due to allegations of misconduct.
