Businessman Richard Jakpa has said, it was “never true” that Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame only engaged him after the commencement of Plea-Bargaining processes.
He said, prior to the Plea-Bargaining negotiations which started in 2023, they had meetings in 2022.
Richard Jakpa’s response was to a question asked by Counsel of Dr Ato Forson during cross-examination on Thursday.
It was the case of Dr Abdul Basit Aziz Bamba that, “it is not true if somebody were to accept that the Hon. Attorney General only engaged with you following the commencement of the plea-bargaining process?”
In his response, he said, “that is never true.”
He added, “In fact, the commencement of the plea-bargain arrangement took place just last year if my memory serves me right, but we have met about twice in 2022 in February and also in July and the plea-bargaining was somewhere around middle 2023 and so it could not be possible that we never met before the plea-bargaining.”
He told the Court that, “the first meeting was around somewhere 11:30 in the night and the second meeting which was somewhere in July…, in fact, I need to refer to WhatsApp to confirm but I know it was in July and that one too was around 10:30 past 11.
The third accused said, “Mostly we meet after 10 pm or between 9 pm to 10 pm,” in his cousin Justice Yonni Kulendi’s house.
Asked to tell the Court the “purpose of this meeting with the Attorney General,” he offered explanation.
“The first meeting, I requested for the meeting. I sent a WhatsApp to him, and I requested to have a private meeting with him at a time and venue of his convenience, then he replied that he will arrange the meeting through my brother who is the Supreme Court Justice.
“So that particular day in the night I was called and I proceeded to his house and I met him,” he told Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, a Justice of the Court of Appeal sitting as an additional High Court judge on Thursday.
“And the purpose was for me to explain to him the whole story, the genesis of the project, and why I think that the charges he is preferring against me were unfounded and he was being misled because there was a new government and this project has been going on since 2010.
“So, I had enough time to explain to him the whole project and then after explaining he told me that if that is the case, you are just a mere agent, and a mere agent you cannot be
responsible for your principal and in any case, we will deal with it, so I should not be worried and I will surely be acquitted at the submission of no case so I should not worry about it.
“So that was the first meeting we had. Then the second meeting in July, I was called, I went home again and met him, then he said he learned that I offered some documents to EOCO in 2017 and I had a lot of documents so if I could share some with him and I said yes, I have documents and luckily for me I have scanned them in my phone.”
He said, “after we had had a lot of discussions, I sent to them to his WhatsApp and in fact, I still have the evidence on my phone and I have also sent it on the pen drive.”
Dr. Ato Forson, the current minority leader in parliament, and businessman Richard Jakpa have been accused of willfully causing financial loss to the republic to the tune of 2.37 million euros through the purchase of ambulances.
They have pleaded not guilty and are standing trial.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/Murtala Inusah
