Renowned Political Scientist and Governance Expert at the University of Ghana, Professor Ransford Edwin Van Gyampo has bemoaned the perceived political bias that is threatening to taint the ongoing trial of the Minority Leader in Parliament, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson and 2 others by the government over an amount of €2.37 million involved in procuring over 200 ambulances for the state in the erstwhile H.E John Dramani Mahama administration.
The Learned academician in his opinion piece on the issue touched base on the new twist of events where the third Prosecution Witness (Richard Jakpa) through an alleged tape recording aired by the National Democratic Congress has claimed that the Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame was coercing him to adduce false testimony that will aid the government prove that Dr Ato Forson is guilty of the charges levelled against him in court and convince the court to jail him.
The academic adds that if all these claims by Mr Jakpa are proven accurate , then it has far reaching consequences for the tenets of democracy and good governance that underpin enjoyed by the country over all these years of constitutional rule since 1992.
Below is the summary of the thoughts contained in the article and published on his social media handles;
“Ideally, the NDC, given its revolutionary past, should have been more vicious, vindictive and ruthless in dealing with political opponents. We heard it’s former National Chairman, the late Dr Kwabena Adjei at least saying there are many ways to kill a cat, when he was demanding certain drastic actions to be taken against some people who weren’t members of his party. But Prof Mills pulled the breaks.
The vicious scheme to jail Ato Forson at all cost by the NPP, as revealed by Richard Jakpa’s recent application in court, should be worrying to all well-meaning Ghanaians who cherish our cohesion and peace. In his witness statement, Jakpa, I am told, testifies on oath, that the Attorney-General told him that the reason for his inclusion in the prosecution is to mask the real intention behind the whole trial and that it was the President of the Republic and Ken Ofori Atta who are mounting pressure for Ato Forson to be jailed. Jakpa is therefore asking the court for an opportunity to testify to these matters and be cross examined.
If truly, someone deserves to be punished, so should it be. But if Jakpa successfully adduces evidence to back his claims, the NPP would succeed in being the worst offenders in decimating public confidence in our court and judicial processes.
I wouldn’t advise the NDC to pay them back tomorrow but the NPP must know that, the revolutionary fervor of the NDC was only suspended during the reign of Prof Mills, just for the purposes of safeguarding our peace as a nation.
It is disappointing to note that these things are happening under a regime that we all thought knew better”.
