'Your motive was to get A-G to stop prosecuting you' - Prosecution cross exams Jakpa on WhatsApp invitation

The motive for Richard Jakpa’s WhatsApp request to meet the Attorney-General privately became a subject of cross-examination by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, at the High Court on Thursday (June 20, 2024).

Cross-examining the businessman, Jakpa who is standing trial with the Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, the DPP put to the accused that right from the beginning, he (Jakpa) sought out to impress upon the A-G, to stop prosecuting him adding, “That was main reason from what you have told this court why you wanted to have a private discussion with him”. 

Jakpa in his response said he only wanted to explain his innocence to the A-G.

He further told the packed courtroom presided over by Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe that he wanted the A-G to stop abusing his discretionary powers capriciously, whimsically and with vindictiveness on innocent Ghanaians. 

“Because deep within me and with the knowledge of the ambulance project, I was 100  per cent convinced that I was innocent and Dr Cassiel Ato Forson was innocent and the only person that had a case to answer if there was any financial loss at all was Dr Sylvester Anemana, so I saw it as a responsibility to request the meeting to put the case and the facts before him and appeal to his conscience to do what is right,” he said. 

After this answer, the DPP asked the accused why he did not go to his lawyer but chose his “abuser [A-G]” to prove his innocence.

Mr Jakpa said, “I am not a lawyer to have known that I couldn’t communicate with my ‘abuser’ who is the A-G and that I should pass it through my lawyer. 

“So the A-G cannot put the blame on me who is not learned like him,” he said.