On Thursday, May 23, Richard Jakpa, the third accused in the trial, alleged in court that Dame approached him at unusual hours to persuade him to implicate Dr. Forson. National Democratic Congress (NDC) National Communications Officer, Sammy Gyamfi, accused Dame of scheming to imprison Ato Forson.
In response, the Attorney-General issued a statement urging the public to dismiss these allegations. Dame emphasized that the Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice categorically denies the NDC's claims and remains focused on prosecuting the case diligently.
“The public is entreated to disregard the allegations. The Attorney-General remains focused on a zealous prosecution of the case,” the statement read.
Dame clarified that the prosecution has relied solely on evidence from the transaction records concerning the purchase of the alleged ambulances, which were submitted before the trial began in January 2022.
He stated that the prosecution has not required or sought the cooperation of any accused persons to build its case.
“It is rather the third accused who has proposed plea bargaining or plea negotiations on multiple occasions, which have not been accepted by the Attorney-General,” Dame added.
Dame also highlighted that despite pressures to discontinue the prosecution of Dr. Forson, he has refused to do so, even having video evidence of Dr. Forson pleading for the case to be dropped.
“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 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,” Dame concluded.
Earlier, during cross-examination by Dr. Forson’s counsel, Richard Jakpa alleged that the Attorney-General sought his help to implicate Dr. Forson.
Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, presiding over the trial, admonished Jakpa to provide direct answers and avoid wasting the court's time. Jakpa's claims prompted a heated exchange in court, where he asserted that Dame contacted him at odd hours to build a case against Dr. Forson.