A Letter to Franklin Cudjoe: Sammy Gyamfi is leading you astray

Dear Franklin Cudjoe, oftentimes, when the blind leads the one suffering from myopia, the two end up being plunged into a gully with no one to rescue them. This is the very scenario that is playing out between you and Sammy Gyamfi of the NDC.

While I am unable to decipher the source or cause of your seemingly frosty relationship with the learned Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, I can confidently tell you that if Sammy Miami Gyamfi is the one you look up to for inspiration to rain attacks on Godfred Dame, then you are being led blindly or awry.

I have observed, for some time, that anytime Sammy Gyamfi or Asiedu Nketiah launches scathing attacks on Godfred Dame as a result of the ongoing ambulance trial, you take to Twitter to inflict more ‘wounds’ on the personality of the young, intelligent and competent Attorney General.

Though I have no means of knowing the underlying reason behind your jaundiced views towards Godfred Dame, I have taken the trouble upon myself to point out to you that your latest assault on Godfred Dame is not only unfortunate and has no basis, but also obscene.

Your latest tweet is “We have a dangerous Attorney General’’, and this was tweeted on the back of an interview Sammy Gyamfi granted after the final day of cross-examination of embattled Richard Jakpa by the learned Attorney General, Dame.

First of all, you don’t come across as someone who spared even a few minutes to watch the live televised cross-examination of Jakpa on Tuesday, 2nd July, 2024, for you’d not have swallowed the highly contrived version of Sammy Gyamfi.

The Attorney General did not exhibit any form of ignorance, as your ‘teacher’ Sammy Gyamfi would want you to believe. The AG was after some admissions by Jakpa and he got them. His mandate was not to know what an LC is or otherwise. He wanted to establish some facts and he got them through the cross-examination on Tuesday.

Let me do you the favour of enlightening you on some of the key highlights that came out of the cross-examination of Jakpa by Godfred Dame. It may be lengthy, but it is for your education so as not to fall for the twisted narrative of Sammy Gyamfi.

1. The Attorney General asked Richard Jakpa, who had already admitted to being paid €700,000 under the Ambulance Contract, how much his principal, Big Sea General Trading LLC received as commission. Jakpa said he could not tell because he was not Big Sea.

2. The Attorney General then suggested to Richard Jakpa that if he as Agent, received 28.7% of the payment under the Ambulance contract (amounting to 700,000 Euros), then between himself (Jakpa) and his principal (Big Sea), they spent about 50% of the payment made by Government of Ghana under the Ambulance Contract. Hence the failure to supply proper ambulances to the State.

3. Richard Jakpa claimed that the AG’s assertion was not correct because according to him, the contract had received relevant approvals from Cabinet and Parliament.

4. The AG asked Jakpa to look at the Cabinet approval and Parliamentary approval and indicate where either Cabinet or Parliament approved the contract with Big Sea. Jakpa’s claim was shown to be false as he could not point to anything in both the Cabinet and Parliamentary approvals by which the Big Sea contract was approved. Both the Cabinet and Parliament approvals rather related to approval of a proposed Stanbic Bank facility which was never used.

5. Richard Jakpa then stated that he was neither the Minister of Health nor Finance, and therefore, he could not be bothered as to why the contract was not approved by both Cabinet and Parliament.

6. The Attorney General indicated to Jakpa that the Ambulance Contract with Big Sea required Big Sea to supply only brand-new ambulances and not to convert vehicles into ambulances. Jakpa disputed. The AG asked Jakpa to go through the entire Ambulance Contract and point out where in the Ambulance Contract Big Sea was mandated to convert vehicles into ambulances. Richard Jakpa could not point to any provision in the contract by which Big Sea was empowered to convert vehicles into ambulances.

7. Jakpa could not dispute the case of the prosecution that in clear breach of the payment terms of the contract, Big Sea was paid by the NDC government even before the first batch of the ambulances was supplied. This was because Hon. Ato Forson, as Deputy Finance Minister, had, without lawful authority, instructed that the LCs be established to pay for the ambulances.

8. The prosecution established in court through Jakpa and with the aid of documentary evidence, that Madam Sherry Aryittey as Minister of Health under the Mahama administration, had at various times, written to Big Sea instructing them to stop supplying the vehicles because of the contractual issues and the fact that her Ministry had no money to establish the LCs.

9. Also, Mr Alex Segbefia, Minister of Health who succeeded Sherry Aryittey, also wrote two letters complaining about the vehicles as not fit for purpose as ambulances, after they arrived. In one of the letters written by Alex Segbefia to Big Sea, he described the vehicles as “ordinary vans”, which could not be converted into ambulances. Meanwhile, the contract required Big Sea to supply fresh functioning ambulances to Ghana and not ordinary vehicles which they would later attempt to convert into ambulances.

10. It was again established in court more than two years after the vehicles were delivered (December 2014), the NDC government could not convert them into ambulances before they exited office in 2017. The vehicles were left to rot at the Air Force base because they were unsuitable to be converted into ambulances. Documents produced by the Attorney-General for Jakpa to read showed that the vehicles were ordinary vans incapable of being converted into functioning ambulances.

11. Further to the above, it was pointed out in court that contrary to Jakpa’s claim that Big Sea was authorized to convert the vans into ambulances, Big Sea was only licensed by the ISO to convert vehicles into ambulances in April 2015, whereas the contract with Big Sea was signed in 2012 and the vehicles delivered in 2014. Today, Jakpa was asked by the AG, Hon. Godfred to peruse his own documents and show them to the court where Big Sea was specifically authorized to covert the vehicles into ambulances, but he could not.

12. Jakpa consistently claimed that the legal advice from Hon. Dominic Ayine, in his capacity as deputy AG under the Mahama administration superseded the letters from Alex Segbefia and Shirley Aryittey, and that, the deputy AG’s advice gave validity to the contract in the manner it was executed. However, today, he was asked by the A-G to read the former Deputy AG’s advice [which is exhibit X] in open court and show where exactly the A-G asked either the Ministry of Health or the Minister for Finance to establish the LCs to pay for the ambulances. Yet again, Jakpa could not point to any part of the letter to support his allegations.

Mr. Franklin Cudjoe, contrary to your constant sermons against the Attorney General, Godfred Dame, that he is dangerous, I have amply demonstrated to you that you have been misled by Sammy Gyamfi, the propaganda secretary of the NDC who is notorious for lying and twisting facts.

The writer is P.K. Sarpong, Whispers from the Corridors of the Thinking Place.

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