The Third Accused (A3) in the ongoing trial over the loss of €2.37 million to the state in a deal to purchase 200 ambulances for the country, Richard Jakpa, yesterday, told the High Court presided over by Justice Afia Serwaa Asare-Botwe, that he declared war on the Attorney-General (AG) when he (Jakpa) lost his application for a submission of no case.
A submission of no case to answer is an application to a judge to dismiss a case because there is no case for the defendant to answer.
Under cross-examination by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, Jakpa, as the 3rd accused has become famously known, said “I told AG that I will use my underworld skills to pay him back and deal with him. AG can use his legal skills and so long as I’m concerned there is a war between the two of us. By prosecuting me, AG has caused me pain.”
The 3rd accused had claimed that the AG, Godfred Dame, assured him on 29th March, 2023 that the Attorney-General would let him go free during the submission of no case by the accused.
He continued “I told AG that the case should not get to the end of the trial because I can’t trust the judge. I didn’t want the judge to have the opportunity to decide my fate on the final judgment day. I will now have to appeal from prison and at that point you, AG, will not pick my call.”
Read excerpts of what ensured in court:
DPP: Right from the beginning, you wanted the Attorney-General to stop prosecuting you.
That is why you wanted a private meeting.
Jakpa: Every citizen has a right to preservation.
DPP: Bottomline is that you wanted the Attorney-General to stop prosecuting you.
Jakpa: I wanted to appeal to the conscience of the Attorney-General that if there was financial loss, it was the second accused who had caused it.
He indicated in court that if the Attorney-General had already filed documents to rely on at the trial in February, 2022, which included the documents that he Jakpa purported to send back to the Attorney-General five-month (5) months later, it “does not spoil anything.”
Richard Jakpa claimed he supplied the prosecution with documents which the prosecution used when he sent them to the Attorney-General via WhatsApp in July, 2022.
The 3rd accused was shown documents which was filed by the Prosecution in February, 2022, which included all the documents he purported to have sent back to the Attorney-General five months later.
Jakpa was also shown a document filed by the prosecution on 16th March, 2023 (the Response by the Republic to the Submission of no Case by Jakpa) signed by the Attorney-General himself in which the A-G had argued that he, Jakpa, had a case to answer.
The DPP then put it to Jakpa that having already filed the Republic’s opposition to Jakpa’s submission of no case on 16th March, 2023, it is not possible for the A-G to have assured him two weeks later (29th March, 2023), that he would let him go free.
Stay tuned.