The High Court in Accra has accepted an audio recording between Richard Jakpa and Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame as evidence for the cross-examination of Richard Jakpa. This decision came despite the Office of the Attorney General initially rejecting the relevance of the audio to the main trial.
After reviewing arguments for and against its admission, the judge ruled that the audio should be accepted. Lawyers for Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson have since begun cross-examining Richard Jakpa based on the recording.
The third accused, Richard Jakpa, recorded a telephone conversation with Godfred Dame, allegedly to document an attempt by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to coerce him into implicating former Deputy Finance Minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson. Jakpa defended his decision to make the recording.
A judge presiding over the case ruled that the tape did not contain any instructions from Godfred Dame for Mr. Jakpa to implicate Ato Forson. The audio conversation was submitted as part of the exhibits by Dr. Ato Forson in support of an application for a mistrial he filed at the court.
Justice Afia Serwah Asare Botwe, in dismissing the application for mistrial, evaluated the content of the recording after dismissing the Attorney General’s objection to the tendering of the pen drive containing the audio. She noted that while the conversation revealed an engagement between Richard Jakpa and Godfred Dame, it did not support claims that the Attorney General asked Jakpa to implicate Ato Forson.
She also found no evidence that the Attorney General stated he needed Jakpa’s help to implicate Ato Forson. According to Justice Afia Serwah Asare Botwe, those claims were made by Richard Jakpa, not Godfred Dame.
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