Businessman Richard Jakpa, the third accused in the ongoing ambulance procurement trial, has explained what ensued between him and his cousin, the Supreme Court judge, Justice Yonny Kulendi, when his name came up in the matter.
When Richard Jakpa first disclosed under oath that the Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, had engaged him at odd hours to impress upon him to falsify his testimony against the Minority Leader, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, the first defendant in the ongoing trial, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) hinted of providing evidence in support of the claims.
The party organised a press conference where a 16-minute audio containing a conversation between Richard Jakpa and Godfred Dame was released.
But prior to the press conference, the NPP had preempted what the NDC was going release as the evidence against the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General.
National Organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Henry Nana Boakye, had said that the evidence was an audio recording that was captured by the third accused during an encounter with the A-G at the residence of a Supreme Court judge, Justice Emmanuel Yonni Kulendi.
Meanwhile, the NDC did not mention the Justice’s name in its press conference, neither did Richard Jakpa in his public and court pronouncements.
Speaking to journalists after proceedings in court Thursday, June 27, 2024, Richard Jakpa explained that no recording was done in his cousin, the Supreme Court judge’s house. He said it was when the A-G decided to engage him one-on-one that he also recorded him.
“When they accused him that they believed that the recording was done in his house, he called me as a junior brother. I went to him and he put that question to me and I said senior brother, I have my code of ethics that I will not break.
“I cannot record in your house because your house is a safe place for me and for whoever comes in from our family so I will not break with this certification so long as the AG kept coming to your house to engage me, he was safe. I couldn’t do anything. But he went out of his way because he couldn’t get what he wanted in your house and now he was engaging me one-on-one, direct on phone. And in that way, it’s an open field. The jungle is neutral so I have the right to execute my skill but in your instance, I couldn’t do it because it’s a family.
“There are certain rules that you must apply in family meetings. You can’t break those rules. So, in Justice Yonny Kulendi’s house, nothing was ever recorded,” Richard Jakpa narrated.
Jakpa has insisted he never in any way brought the Supreme Court judge into the matter but rather the NPP who made their preemptive allegations which didn’t suffice.
“It was the prosecution that mentioned his name in court and continued on air through their media surrogate. Because they were thinking that the recording that I had made, they thought the recording was made in Justice Yonny Kulendi’s house initially so they were preempting it because the recording had not yet been played.
“So they thought the recording was made in Justice Kulendi’s house because the AG knew very well that he had met me in Justice Kulendi’s house on several occasions and we’ve had meetings,” he explained.
