Private Legal Practitioner, Akoto Ampaw, has dismissed his involvement in a bribery allegation levelled against him by one lawyer Akwasi Afrifa.
According to him, the allegations are infantile and preposterous.
He added: “Some time at the end of July 2020, Ogyeedom came to see me at our offices at Kojo Thompson Road, Adabraka, Accra, with a request that he wanted me to take over the prosecution of his case in the Supreme Court.
“I indicated that it would be foolhardy on my part to take over a case before the Supreme Court that was to be heard in some two to three days’ time. I, therefore, urged him to still rely on his current legal team in the pending application and, if thereafter, he still wanted my professional services, I would be ready to hear him out,” he noted in a statement.
Mr Afrifa is currently facing disciplinary proceedings after his client, one Ogyeedom Obranu Kwesi Atta VI sought the assistance of the General Legal Council to retrieve $75,000 from him.
According to Ogyeedom Atta, who is a chief of the Efutu and Gomoa Adjumako traditional area, Mr Afrifa asked for an amount of $100,000 to undertake “ways and means” to secure a favourable court judgment.
But Mr Afrifa has alleged that the Traditional ruler rather informed him that the Chief Justice, Anin Yeboah, had agreed to ensure a favourable ruling in his case provided he selects Mr Ampaw as a lawyer in the stead of the former and pay an amount of $5m.
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Mr Ampaw, clarifying further, said: “Eventually I agreed to take up the brief and filed a notice of change of lawyer in the Supreme Court sometime in October. I have since been in the Supreme Court on a few occasions in respect of the matter to move an application to adduce new evidence in response to the Court’s grant of an earlier application by the appellant to adduce new evidence.
“On March 31, 2021, the Supreme Court granted our application by a four-to-one ruling. Incidentally, the Chief Justice, who, according to lawyer Afrifa’s yarn, wanted me to be engaged as a lawyer in the matter to facilitate an outcome favourable to my client, was the dissenting judge out of a panel of five. The records are there for anyone to access, including the media.”
To Mr Ampaw, Mr Afrifa’s implication is for his own diabolical reasons.
“Lawyer Afrifa must have his own diabolical reasons for trying to implicate me in this crazy judicial bribery scandal, which manifestly does not add up. That is his problem,” part of his statement read.
Read the full response below:
Akoto Ampaw Responds to Akwasi Afrifa on Bribery Allegation by Dennis Adu on Scribd