Sammy Gyamfi, the National Communications Officer of the largest opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), stipulates that the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice will be held responsible for what he describes as infringement of justice.
Sammy Gyamfi opined that, the testament of the third accused person, Richard Jakpa, is congruent to the NDC's assertion that the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice wants to use whims and caprices to convict the minority leader and the Member of Parliament for AjumakoEssiam-Enyan, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson.
In a radio interview on Accra based Joy FM, Sammy Gyamfi said, "His day of accountability, his day of reckoning has come. His cup is full, God has exposed his evil works which he does under the cloak of his office as Attorney-General. And it is time for him to face the music. And we are telling him, he is not above the law."
Sammy Gyamfi’s comment is in sequel to the testimony given by the third accused who claimed, the Attorney-General called him at odd hours to work in his favour to implicate Dr. Ato Forson, who was a deputy Finance Minister in the erstwhile Mahama government.
“The A-G has on several occasions engaged me at odd hours to help him make a case against A1 and I have evidence for that. If he pushes me, I will open the Pandora’s Box. I don’t understand why the A-G will accuse me of defending A1 when I’m here to defend myself. If he pushes me, I’ll open the Pandora’s Box. I have evidence to all this,” he said on Thursday, May 23.
Sammy Gyamfi maintains that, the Attorney-General is using every means possible to find the leader of the minority caucus in parliament guilty to settle political scores considering how hard the leader has descended on the government.
Sammy Gyamfi said, "If your hands are clean, you have no ill-motive and you want to communicate with an accused person before the court, you know his lawyer so you go through his lawyer. You don't go calling the accused person, meeting him under the cover of darkness, planning all manner of things that I am restraining myself not to put them out ahead of next week's press conference."
In a press release by the Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice, signed by the Deputy minister, Alfred Tuah Yeboah, the Ministry denied all allegations leveled against the A-G and the office, emphasisng that the ministry has worked based on the information they have received as a result of their investigations.
“The Republic has throughout the trial, relied solely on the record of the impugned transaction, i.e. the purchase of ordinary vans purporting to be ambulances, to sustain its case against the accused persons. This record existed before January, 2022 (when the case was commenced) and was duly filed in Court by the prosecution before the commencement of the trial.”
“The Republic has never required or desired the cooperation of any of the accused persons in the matter, in which it has already succeeded in establishing a prima facie case against all the accused persons. Neither the Attorney-General nor any officer from the Office of the Attorney-General has approached any of the accused persons with the view to obtaining evidence from them.”
The Attorney-General further stated that, the recent testimony given against the Attorney-General is a deliberate attempt by the NDC to digress due process of justice.
“It is rather the third accused who, by various letters dated 27th April, 2023, 16th May, 2023, 30th May, 2023 and 12th June, 2023, has proposed to the Republic through the Attorney-General to engage in plea bargaining or plea negotiations. This plea bargaining proposal has, to date, not been accepted by the Attorney-General.
"Even though the law on plea bargaining passed by Parliament permits a prosecutor to negotiate with an accused person after a plea proposal has been made, the Attorney-General has not engaged the third accused person to give false testimony in the matter.
"The Attorney-General has also come under enormous pressure from all manner of persons for him to discontinue the prosecution of the 1st accused person, Cassiel Ato Forson, but has not yielded.”
“The Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice considers the latest allegation levelled against the Attorney-General as part of a grand scheme by the NDC to put more pressure on him to discontinue the prosecution or to divert attention from the real issues regarding the actions of the accused persons which have caused enormous financial loss to the State.”