The Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Dame, has asked the High Court in Accra to stop a motion for an investigation into his actions in the trial of Minority Leader, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson. Dr. Forson has been accused of causing the state to lose a lot of money when he bought 200 ambulances.
Dame, through his lawyer, is also against a motion that asks for a mistrial of the ongoing case. The court document says, “Affidavit in opposition to a motion for an order of enquiry into the conduct of the Attorney General, order of mistrial, injunction, and/or stay of proceeding in the instant criminal proceedings.”
The document showed that the motion was filed by Dr. Ato Forson, who is the first accused in the case, and Richard Jakpa, a businessman, who is the third accused. They filed the motion after claims that the Attorney General had forced a witness to change their story.
Dame’s lawyer said in the application that all the claims against him are not true and have no basis. “The applicant has not given any good reasons for this application to be granted. It is not allowed under the laws that govern criminal law and practice in Ghana.”
“This application is a trick by the applicant to stop his lawful prosecution for things he did as a public officer that made the state lose a huge amount of money. It is not valid because no one in Ghana is safe from being prosecuted.”
He also said that his client has denied the claims against him and should be allowed to keep prosecuting the case. “I respectfully say that the Attorney-General has the constitutional duty to prosecute all crimes in Ghana and cannot be stopped from doing this duty for anyone in Ghana, as all people are equal before the law.”
“The respondent denies each and every claim of important fact in the affidavit that supports this application. The statements in the affidavit that support this application are full of false claims that are carefully and wrongly meant to create unnecessary doubts about the court’s ability to give justice in this case.”
He added, “Even though the applicant makes many wild and untrue claims against the Attorney-General, nothing in the affidavit that supports this application questions the integrity of the court or hints at any decision or action by the trial court that stops the court from giving justice in this case.”
