SSNIT OBS case: Godson Ladzekpo is a ‘very dangerous and treacherous character ‘ – Court

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The High Court in Accra has described Godson Ladzekpo the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) General Manager in charge of Management Information System(MIS) as “a very dangerous and treacherous character!”.

Mr Ladzekpo is the Prosecution’s star Witness in the case in which former SSNIT Director General Ernest Thompson and four others are facing charges regarding the purchase of Operational Business Suite (OBS).

The court said Mr Ladzekpo portrayed a “self-righteous and holier-than-thou” attitude of pointing fingers at everyone on the OBS Project Steering Committee of which he was a member.

The Court also said in an 81-page ruling on the submission of no case to answer that PW1 Godson Ladzekpo who was part of the OBS Steering Committee that approved the variations (Change Orders) on the OBS Project was aware that the Digitization of the Critical Legacy Documents at the SSNIT Records Department was not part of the OBS Contract.

Yet, he “stood in the witness box looked at the court eye and lied through his teeth” that the digitization of the critical legacy documents was part of the OBS Contract.

Additionally, the Court stated “it is baffling how anybody could lie on oath as the PW1 did!”.

Furthermore, the Court described Count 19 of which Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Perfect Business Systems, Juliet Hassana Kramer was charged with the offense of defrauding by false pretense as “the most bizarre”.

Mr. Thompson, John Hagan Mensah, a former IT Manager at SSNIT; Juliet Hassana Kramer, CEO of Perfect Business Systems (PBS); Caleb Kwaku Afaglo, a former Head of Management Information Systems (MIS) and Peter Hayibor, the General Manager General Counsel were all charged in a combined 29 counts which related to the $66 million SSNIT OBS project, intended to revamp operations through Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

They had all pleaded not guilty to their respective charges while prosecution closed their case after parading 10 witnesses.

Ruling on a submission of no case to answer on December 3, 2024 which effectively led to the acquittal and discharge of Juliet Hassana Kramer, the CEO of Perfect Business Systems of all charges as the Prosecution was unable to establish a prima facie case against her.

Her lawyers led by Baffour Gyau Bonsu Ashia, who was holding Thaddeus Sory’s brief had held all along that, Juliet Hassana Kramer, ought not to have been charged, and the ruling of the court vindicated their stance.

In a strong worded description of Mr Ladzekpo who had testified as the First Prosecution Witness in the case, the Court raised doubts on his testimony.

“After having listened to all the prosecution witnesses and the cross-examination and read all the copious documents (over 300 in all), tendered by both the prosecution and the defence (through the prosecution witnesses), I am tempted to believe that the PW1 Godson Ladzekpo who was a member of the OBS Steering Committee which approved the variations, upgrades and additional hardware for the OBS Project and which resulted in the Change Orders and Requests the subject of a substantial part of the charges against the accused persons, ‘was one of the anonymous Concerned Staff of SSNIT who according to the investigator PW10 lodged the complaint culminating in the charges against the accused persons’”.

The Court said PW1 (Godson Ladzekpo) “In my view is a very dangerous and treacherous character!”

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Read below the full ruling on the submission of no case: