Godfred Yaw Yeboah-Dame
A former Director of the Ghana School of Law, Kwaku Ansa-Asare, has called for the resignation of the Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame.
According to the private legal practitioner, Mr. Dame, being an experienced legal professional, should be well aware of the law, making his reported meeting with the third accused person in the Ambulance case, Richard Jakpa to negotiate a plea bargain highly questionable.
Speaking on Accra-based Joy FM, Mr Ansa-Asare emphasized that the Attorney-General serves as the state’s lawyer and thus should not meet with the accused behind closed doors, as has been alleged.
“My candid opinion is that the learned Attorney General knows or is deemed to know the law. Apart from the judges, I think the other person we can say the law rests in his bosom is the Attorney-General.
“The Attorney-General ought to know where, how, and when he has to meet accused persons and in the residence of a sitting justice of the Supreme Court, this is scandalous and the Attorney General must resign or the president must fire him,” he asserted.
His comments follow allegations by Richard Jakpa that the Attorney-General had previously approached him to implicate the Minority Leader and former Deputy Finance Minister, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson.
During cross-examination by counsel for the Minority Leader, Jakpa was cautioned by the trial judge, Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, to be direct in his responses and avoid wasting the court’s time. In response, the Attorney-General accused Jakpa of defending the Minority Leader.
Jakpa retorted that the Attorney-General was aggrieved because he had failed to him build a case against Dr. Ato Forson.
“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,” Mr Jakpa said in court.
Mr. Ansa-Asare recalled a similar situation in 1975, involving a plea bargain in the case of The Republic vs. Dr. Isaac Ohene Gyan, which led to the then-Attorney-General, Justice Austin Amissah, losing his position. Based on this precedent, Mr. Asare argued that Mr. Dame should resign.
Meanwhile, Isaac Wilberforce Mensah, a spokesperson for the Attorney-General’s Department, stated that at the time of the meeting, counsel did not represent Jakpa; therefore, the Attorney-General met with him and a Supreme Court judge at the pre-negotiation stage.
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