It has emerged through cross-examination in court that the third accused in the ambulance purchase trial, Richard Jakpa, was the first person to contact the Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame.
This was to express appreciation to Mr. Dame for intervening for him at the time he had been granted bail and had met the conditions but was being frustrated administratively.
He noted that the Lands Commission wanted another valuation of land that had been presented to execute the bail bond, which meant he could spend additional days on remand.
This prompted him (Richard Jakpa) to send a message to Justice Kulendi who then engaged the Attorney-General to intervene.
He explained that it was after this intervention that he took Godfred Dame’s number from his cousin (Justice Kulendi) and later contacted Godfred Dame to show appreciation.
He then followed that up with another text to arrange an engagement with Godfred Dame to explain his side of the case to him. This culminated in his first meeting with Godfred Dame.
The prosecution, however, noted that during the intervention to make sure the bail conditions were met, Godfred Dame did not speak to Richard Jakpa, but Jakpa denied this view.
This followed the businessman’s admission in court that he did not submit the entire WhatsApp conversation between himself and the Attorney-General to the court.
The lawyers of Ato Forson, the first accused, while cross-examining Richard Jakpa tendered through him, evidence of WhatsApp and audio conversations between Richard Jakpa and Godfred Dame.
Under cross-examination by the prosecution, however, it was suggested to Richard Jakpa that the evidence submitted does not represent the entire conversation between himself and Godfred Dame.
But Mr. Jakpa had explained that only the portions of the conversation he deemed relevant to make his case was what he submitted.
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Yvonne Attakora-Obuobisa, further suggested to the third accused person that even though he sent 68 messages to Godfred Dame, he only responded to two.
But, Richard Jakpa explained that the view sought to be pushed by Madam Attakora-Obuobisa was unfair.
According to him, even though the claim is true, the WhatsApp conversation does not reveal the entirety of their conversation. He clarified that in some instances, Godfred Dame made requests for some documents orally while he responded through WhatsApp, the reason the chats will reveal that Godfred Dame only responded to two of them.
Ambulance trial: Dame implicated presiding judge per Jakpa’s testimony in court – Dafeamekpor
