Private legal practitioner Nana Yaw Osei has taken it out hard at the Attorney General and Minister of Justice Godfred Yeboah Dame for refusing to recuse himself from the ongoing Ambulance Purchase trial after conducting himself in a manner perceived as disgraceful
An Appeals Court Judge sitting with additional responsibility as a High Court Judge, Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, advised the AG to excuse himself from conducting the case after the first and third defendants in the case raised issues of professional and prosecutorial misconduct in reference to the content of a recorded interaction between Mr. Dame and the third accused Richard Jakpa.
In a ruling, the judge advised the Attorney-General not to be involved in the prosecution of the case to ensure the judicial process was protected and to maintain public confidence.
Nana Yaw Osei, in an interview with Millicent Safo-Adu on Bresosem at Abusuafm, stated that “Whether the Attorney-General recuse himself from the case or not, it will not wash away the shame he has received”.
He insisted, “You see, it is what the Attorney General will say that is necessary. If he has boldly said he won’t distance himself from the case for other people within his department to continue with the case, there’s nothing wrong with it, but the disgrace he has received; it won’t wash.
The lawyer argued that the decision of the Attorney General to proceed with the case could be inferred as a smokescreen to cover the guilt and public embarrassment that has greeted his perceived beckoning of a defendant to directly secure fake medical documents to demand a leave of the courts for medical reasons amidst other allegations of asking Jakpa to implicate the first defendant Ato Forson.
“Sometimes, it may be because of the disgrace he has received. That’s the reason he won’t excuse himself.”
Nana Yaw Osei argued that the Attorney-General’s conduct has breached the code of ethics of the Ghana BAR Association which bars lawyers from directly contacting a legally represented client on the opposite side of a case.
