A chief of the Efutu and Gomoa Adjumako traditional area, Ogyeedom Obranu Kwesi Atta VI, has broken his silence over the bribery allegations against the Chief Justice, Kwasi Anin-Yeboah.
According to him, allegations made by one lawyer Kwasi Afrifa of intended bribery or actual bribery against any judge including the Chief Justice is false.
“Afrifa is a liar. He is not fit to be called a lawyer because everything he said in his letter was false. I have not bribed anyone not even to talk of giving money to CJ. He should come out to speak the truth because I can’t continue to deal with a liar,” he fumed.
Ogyeedom Atta’s comment is in reaction to allegations made by Mr Afrifa against the Chief Justice.
These yet-to-be proven allegations made by the lawyer were contained in a response to a petition filed against him at the General Legal Council by a client called Ogyeedom Obranu Kwesi Atta IV.
Mr Afrifa, among other things, claimed that the Chief Justice demanded US$5million from his client in order to pass a favourable verdict over a land issue.
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“At the end of July 2020, the Petitioner informed me that friends of his who were highly connected politically had taken him to see the Chief Justice who had agreed to help him win his case on condition that he drops my good self as the lawyer handling the case for him and engages Akoto Ampaw Esq in my stead,” Mr Afrifa said.
“He further informed me that the Chief Justice had demanded a bribe of US$5,000,000 for a successful outcome to his case and that he had already paid US$500,000 to the Chief Justice. He further indicated that he was hard-pressed to raise the remainder of the US$5,000,000 and so I should refund some of the GH¢300,000 paid me as fees because he had in line with the advice of the Chief Justice, engaged Akoto Ampaw Esq as solicitor to continue the case before the Supreme Court,” he added.
But, reacting to the claims made by Mr Afrifa on Adom FM’s morning show Dwaso Nsem Tuesday, Ogyeedom Atta said Mr Afrifa, who was engaged to handle a case at the Court of Appeal, Cape Coast was paid in full on an agreed sum of GH¢300,000 but later suggested to him [Ogyeedom] to make some funds available for what he termed as ‘ways and means’.
“In the course of handling the case, he [Lawyer Akwasi Afrifa] suggested to me that it was in my interest, beside his fully paid-up fees to provide an amount of one hundred thousand dollars (US$100,000) to enable him do some ways and means (gymnastics) on my case so that we can obtain a favourable decision,” he detailed.
The chief said he neither met the Chief Justice nor engaged him in any way.
“I unequivocally deny all allegations of intended bribery or actual bribery against any judge including the Chief Justice whom I have never met or known personally apart from seeing him in distance from the bench,” he stressed.