A-G asks court to throw out Jakpa’s application to discontinue criminal prosecution

Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, has asked the High Court in Accra to dismiss an application filed by Richard Jakpa, third accused in the ambulance procurement trial seeking orders striking out the charges against him and terminating the proceedings.

Jakpa also wants the court to stay proceedings or order a mistrial, but the Attorney-General in an affidavit in opposition deposed to by a Principal State Attorney, says no proper grounds have been canvassed by the applicant to warrant a grant of the application.

According to the Attorney-General, the application is unknown to criminal procedure and practice in Ghana.

“That the instant application is a ruse and a desperate smokescreen set up by the applicant to abort his legitimate prosecution for the role he played in causing colossal financial loss to the State in the purchase of ordinary vans purporting to be ambulances.”

Godfred-Yeboah Dame argues that the application is anchored on untruths and a skillful manipulation of facts, and seeks to clothe Jakpa with immunity from prosecution.

The application, he says, is “incompetent and offensive to Ghanaian law.

“That I respectfully say that all persons are equal before the law and the Attorney-General’s constitutional responsibility to prosecute all crimes within the Republic cannot be injuncted in respect of some particular persons or any group of persons in Ghana.

“That the instant application is an extension of the public theatrics the accused persons have resorted to in a bid to discredit the prosecution of this case and cast doubt about the integrity of the proceedings in this Honourable Court, all of which the Attorney-General has so far observed utmost professionalism about, in spite of the persistent insults and abuse to his integrity by persons associated with the accused persons.”