The third accused person in the ongoing ambulance case has now admitted that he did NOT submit the entirety of the WhatsApp conversation between himself and Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame to the court. In all, Jakpa, caught in the crosshairs of a gruelling cross-examination, admitted that he sent a whopping 68 messages to the AG
It has also emerged that it was Jakpa who initiated contact with the Attorney-General.
Lawyers of Ato Forson while cross-examining Richard Jakpa tendered through him, evidence of WhatsApp and audio conversations between Richard Jakpa and Godfred Dame. A couple of weeks ago the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) instigated a media storm over the messages, calling for the head of the Attorney-General.
Under cross-examination by the prosecution, however, it was suggested to Richard Jakpa that the evidence submitted does not represent the entirety of the conversation between himself and Godfred Dame.
But Richard Jakpa explained that he only presented relevant parts of the conversation that would make his case.
The director of public prosecutions Yvonne Attakora-Obuobisa further suggested to the third accused person that even though he sent 68 messages to Godfred Dame, the latter only responded to two.
Richard Jakpa explained that the view sought to be pushed by the director of prosecution is unfair. According to him, even though the claim is true, the WhatsApp conversation does not reveal the entirety of their conversation. He clarified that in some instances, Godfred Dame made requests for some documents orally while he responded through WhatsApp, the reason the chats will reveal that Godfred Dame only responded to two of them.
The AG’s office is seeking to tender the entirety of the messages into the record, but the defence lawyers have sought permission to study them before they are submitted.
The prosecution also revealed that the first time the Attorney General provided any sort of assistance to Richard Jakpa, it was at the request of Justice Yonni Kulendi, who is the cousin of Richard Jakpa.
Richard Jakpa affirmed this and explained that it happened when he was granted bail and had met the conditions but was being frustrated administratively.
He noted that the Lands Commission wanted another valuation of land that had been presented to execute the bail bond, which meant he could spend additional days on remand.
This prompted him (Richard Jakpa) to send a message to Justice Kulendi who then engaged the Attorney General to intervene.
He explained that it was after this intervention that he took Godfred Dame’s number from his cousin (Justice Kulendi) and later contacted Godfred Dame to show appreciation.
He then followed that up with another text to arrange an engagement with Godfred Dame to explain his side of the case to him. This culminated in his first meeting with Godfred Dame.
The prosecution, however, noted that during the intervention to make sure the bail conditions were met, Godfred Dame did not speak to Richard Jakpa, but Jakpa denied this view.
