Martin Luther Kpebu, a private legal practitioner, has said mistakes were going to be inevitable in the ruling on the applications filed by the first and third accused persons in the ambulance purchase trial.
Given the weight of the issue and delivering a ruling in just two days, the renowned lawyer is asking “where is she (the judge) in a hurry to go?”, having given the ruling without granting the lawyers for the applicants an opportunity to be heard.
According to Mr. Kpebu, what the judge did was fundamentally wrong, and advised the applicants to challenge the ruling.
“The ruling itself, I wouldn’t be surprised, they actually would have to go and challenge it. She did something fundamentally wrong. It was so, so, so wrong that I was like, why? Where is she in a hurry to go?” he asked whilst commenting on the matter on the KeyPoints on TV3 Saturday, June 08, 2024.
He indicated that the audio provided by Mr. Jakpa actually implicates the Attorney-General.
“Saying that, ‘you mean you want me to answer your way?’ Then Dame hesitated a bit, and yet said, yes, okay, ‘you let’s take it that way.’ He ended up with a “yes”. That is the kernel of the matter,” he added.
“The judge didn’t refer to it, so I’m like, maybe the pressure, because to give two days for such a weighty ruling, for me, it was too short, so there were bound to be mistakes. I knew it. I was like, no, two days, are you sure? Because it’s too much, and you know in the
process, what we are not discussing, what viewers don’t understand so far is that there
was a great, great, great, great, great, great travesty of justice. The judge did a lot of
injustice to the accused persons,” Martin Kpebu reemphasised.
Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, the presiding Judge in the ongoing ambulance trial Thursday, June 06, 2024, dismissed all four applications filed by Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson and Richard Jakpa in the ongoing ambulance purchase trial.
The Court in its separate rulings said the applications for an order of mistrial, inquiry into conduct of AG, injunction and stay of proceedings are without legal basis.
In a separate ruling, the presiding judge, Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe said that there is no legal basis for the court to order for enquiry into the conduct of prosecution when the case is pending. “Maybe another forum and not the court,” the court had said.
Background
Dr. Ato Forson, the current Minority Leader and Richard Jakpa, a businessman are standing trial for 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.
Essentially, the applications are seeking an order to discontinue the trial of the two accused persons following allegations against the Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame.
Dr. Ato Forson, who is also the Member of Parliament for Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam was asking the court for order of injunction against the Attorney-General or his office from further him.
He also sought a mistrial aimed at abating the proceedings and also a stay of proceedings pending an appeal to challenge the Court’s earlier decision for them to start cross examination of Mr Jakpa, third accused before the Attorney-General, Godfred Dame.
For his part, Mr Jakpa, was also asking the court to strike out the charges against him on ground that it violates his right to fair trial, a request which was supported by lawyers of Dr. Ato Forson, who filed an affidavit to that effect.
They asked for the charge of causing financial loss to the state levelled against Jakpa to be struck out.
The applications before Justice Asare-Botwe, a Justice of the Court of Appeal were premised on the third accused person’s allegations that Godfred Dame, the Attorney-General, had impressed on him through meetings and phone calls during odd hours to implicate the first accused- Ato Forson –by falsifying his testimony in order to secure his conviction.
AG’s opposition
The applications were opposed by the Attorney-General, describing them as frivolous.
“The accused persons are bent on using any means necessary, fair, or foul, to abort their legitimate prosecution for crimes committed against the Republic, and must not be aided in that illegitimate endeavour through a grant of the instant application,” the A-G’s affidavit in opposition to the applications stated in some parts.
Dame also contended that it is in the public interest that the case be brought to a firm conclusion based on the credible evidence before the court.
But Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, a Justice of the Court of Appeal sitting as an additional High Court judge, did not allow submissions on the applications.
She said the documents filed by the lawyers and the State are extensive enough for the court to consider them and deliver a ruling.
She also said, the court will also analyze the audio tape attached by Richard Jakpa to his application, with emphasis on its endorsement and admissibility.
