Richard Jakpa,
the second accused person standing trial alongside Minority Leader Cassiel Ato
Forson, on Tuesday, June 20, received a stern warning from the court against
engaging in acts that amount to contempt.
The warning
followed outbursts by the CEO of Big Sea Trading LLC who is standing trial
together with the minority leader for counts of causing financial loss to the
state.
It all happened
when the accused person was nearly prevented from using the washroom while
proceedings were ongoing. During cross-examination of the first witness of
Cassiel Ato Forson, Richard Jakpa attempted to leave the courtroom for the
washroom but a hesitant Justice Afia Serwaa Asare-Botwe allowed him to use the
washroom within the courtroom.
Afterwards, the
judge offered sanitiser to Jakpa, but he expressed frustration at the judge for
initially preventing him from using the washroom.
This outburst angered
Justice Afia Serwaa Asare-Botwe, who took offence to the accused’s actions and
deemed them contemptuous.
She cautioned
Jakpa against repeating such behaviour and warned that she would exercise her
powers freely if he did.
“How dare you
speak to the court like that? This should be the very last time you will show
disrespect to the court, if you do, I will fully use my powers,” the Court of
Appeal judge sitting as an additional High Court judge said furiously.
Meanwhile, the
first accused person, Cassiel Ato Forson has opened his defence with a
subpoenaed witness, an officer of the Stanbic Bank, which was approached by the
Government of Ghana to issue letters of credit for the purchase of some 200
ambulances.
In his
testimony, the witness who said he worked on the letters of credit as required
by the government revealed that the deal between the government, however, did
not materialize.
He noted that he
did not have the full reflection of events and will require a month to get some
of the documents relating to the deal which have been sent to their archive.
But Justice Afia
Serwaa Asare-Botwe who did not see the relevance of the documents refused the
request saying it will unduly delay the trial.
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