A former Director General of the Ghana School of Law, Kwaku Ansa-Asare, has called for the resignation of Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame due to his conduct in the ongoing ambulance purchase trial against the Minority Leader, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson.
Ansa-Asare believes that Dame should step down on moral grounds to protect his hard-earned reputation. This follows allegations made by the third accused in the ambulance case, Richard Jakpa, who claimed in open court that Dame had approached him multiple times, seeking his assistance to implicate Dr Ato Forson.
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has announced that they will soon provide evidence to support Jakpa’s claims.
Ansa-Asare recalled Dame’s time as a student and expressed his long-standing respect for the Attorney General’s integrity, highlighting his concern over the recent allegations.
“My stake in the matter is that given the surrounding circumstances of this matter, there is every moral justification for the Attorney General to quit his job to save his hard-earned reputation. I respect him, he was one of our brightest students and from Day one, I have followed with a keen interest in his performance as an attorney general.
“When he was appointed I recall inviting him and counselling him to make sure that he did not soil his hands. If you ask him, he will bear witness,” he stated.
Mr Ansa-Asare criticised the Attorney General’s handling of the plea bargaining process, stating that such negotiations should occur within the confines of the Attorney General’s or the trial judge’s chambers, not at the ministry.
He argued also that no positive outcome could emerge from any form of inquiry, be it parliamentary, judicial, or executive. Instead, Godfred Dame should be made to confront the legal proceedings in court, where he can defend himself before an impartial judge, rather than through a politically charged commission of inquiry.
“As an attorney general who is in charge of the processes and the criminal justice system, he ought to know that plea bargaining can only take place under his auspices in his chambers not at the ministry but the chambers of the Attorney General or the chambers of the trial judge.
“Nothing good can come out of any enquiry whether we label it parliamentary or judicial or executive enquire, let him face the law in the law court. That is why he as the attorney general with statutory responsibility with constitutional responsibility to superintend the rule of law, must be the first to go and face it. let him tell his story in an ordinary court before an impartial justice and exonerate himself.
