The Ambulance case came to be one of the high-interest cases given the involvement of the leader of the opposition party in Parliament, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson.
Ato Forson and two others – Slyverster Anemaa, a former director of the Ministry of Health, and Richard Jakpa, a businessman who was the local representative of Big Sea, the Dubai-based company contracted to supply ambulances – were tried at the High Court for causing financial loss to the state over the purchase.
The charges filed in late 2022 included willfully causing financial loss to the state and misuse of public property, although the accused persons had denied wrongdoing.
Sylvester Anemaa last year, earned some relief when the Attorney-General discontinued the charges against him. Anemaa had also been hospitalised around that time and had missed a number of court hearings.
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While Attorney-General Godfred Dame pursued the case against the remaining accused persons, he maintained that the ambulances (about 30 of the initial 200 that were shipped to Ghana) were “defective” and not fit for purpose.
Ato Forson, who had been a deputy Finance Minister at the time the deal was brokered from 2012 to 2015 was also accused of signing Letters of Credit (LC) without authorisation from his boss, then-finance minister Seth Tekpe.
In March 2023, after the prosecution had called five witnesses, the High Court hearing the matter had ruled that the AG’s team had shown sufficient evidence to prove their case and therefore Ato Forson and Richard Jakpa should respond by opening their defence.
Forson’s lawyers disagreed as the court dismissed their filing for a submission of no case. This is also what led them to the Court of Appeal (Ghana’s second-highest court), requesting an appeal over the High Court’s March 30, 2023 ruling.
Ruling by a 2-1 majority, the Court of Appeal ruled on Tuesday that the High Court decision asking Foson to open his defence was done in error, and eventually acquitting both Forson and Jakpa.
Read Also: Ambulance Case: High Court Erred When it Ordered Ato Forson to Open Defence – Court of Appeal Rules
I know you, wonderful people 🤪, don’t really like reading, so let me help you with a summary of the 125-page judgement of the Court of Appeal. The judgement turns on 3 key points:
THE EFFECT OF A LETTER OF CREDIT (LC): One could sense the AG’s difficulty on this aspect of the…
— Justice Srem-Sai (@JusticeSremSai) July 30, 2024
Read the full judgment below;
