Today, Thursday, June 20, the High Court in Accra is poised to decide on the admission of 68 WhatsApp messages sent by Richard Jakpa, the third accused in the ongoing trial involving Ato Forson, to Attorney-General Godfred Dame, along with the Attorney-General’s two responses.
During proceedings on Tuesday, June 18, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa highlighted the substantial number of messages sent by Mr Jakpa compared to the limited responses from the Attorney-General.
The DPP sought to introduce all WhatsApp messages sent by Mr Jakpa into evidence.
Mr Jakpa acknowledged introducing himself to the Attorney General before the trial and obtaining the Justice Minister’s contact information through his cousin, Supreme Court Judge Justice Yonny Kulendi.
Under cross-examination, Mr Jakpa admitted that the messages presented in court did not encompass the entire conversation but were selected based on relevance to his case.
The attempt by the DPP to submit the WhatsApp conversation faced objections from Mr. Sory, counsel for Mr. Jakpa, who argued that the defence required additional time to thoroughly review the messages.
Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe then sought Dr Bamba’s input, counsel for the first accused, regarding objections to the submission.
Dr Bamba objected, citing the lack of colour printing in the document, surprising the judge as the printout provided by Mr Jakpa also lacked colour.
Following these objections, the court instructed the DPP to defer the submission of the messages until the defence had adequate time to examine them, scheduling this review for today’s session.
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