Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has characterized the ongoing ambulance case trial and the prosecution of the Minority Leader, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, as a form of 'persecution.'

In his view, this represents a risky undertaking by the government, one that may or may not yield success. While the Speaker does not condone violations of Ghanaian laws, he advocates for their equitable application rather than selectively targeting political adversaries.

Mr. Bagbin shared these remarks during his visit to the family of the late former Majority Leader, Felix Kwasi Owusu-Adjepong, to express his condolences on Thursday, October 19.

“The Minority Leader, unfortunately, is being persecuted so on a number of these occasions he can’t be with us because he is appearing in court, as of now, he is in court being tried. It is not that we don’t want the rule of law to apply, we all want it to apply, but where prosecution is just a gamble, ‘I may win or I may not win, but let me do it’, I will not prescribe that for any politician because as a leader you always have to take the risk, you could get it right, you could get it catastrophically wrong."

Bagbin

“Could you be prosecuted because of that? Then there will be tribulation, nobody will have the courage to come out boldly and take decisions where things are really hard."

“These are some of the things that we have to take on board as we continue to work together in Ghana. It happens all over the world, it is not only in Ghana, these things happen worldwide, you can go to the UK and, the US, and they don’t go into prosecution, there are other ways of handling these things. He has been absent the day we were going to President Kufuor’s place he was in court, and today too he is in court.”

In the meantime, the former Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, appeared in court on Thursday, October 19, to provide testimony on behalf of the defendants.

During his appearance at the Economic and Financial Court in Accra, he confirmed that he had granted full authorization to his then Deputy, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, to correspond with the Bank of Ghana.

This correspondence aimed to request the establishment of Letters of Credit in favor of Big Sea General Trading Ltd of Dubai, for the procurement of 30 ambulances.

Finance Minister, Seth Terkper

During his testimony in the case, Mr. Terkper informed the Court that the authorization for the accused to initiate the request for Letters of Credit (LCs) was granted during a special management meeting that he presided over at the Finance Ministry.

He explained that this directive was issued in response to a legal opinion from the Attorney General and the Ministry's legal department. The objective was to ensure the execution of a contract between the Government of Ghana and Big Sea, which involved the supply of 200 ambulances. This measure was taken to prevent the government from incurring a judgment debt in case Big Sea initiated legal action due to substantial delays and breaches of the contract.

Mr. Terkper refuted claims made by the current Attorney General that Dr. Ato Forson had set up the LCs without proper justification and authorization, stating that such allegations were baseless.

BackgroundDr. Ato Forson, along with two co-accused individuals, Sylvester Anemana, a former director of the Ministry of Health, and businessman Richard Jakpa, are currently facing trial on charges of alleged financial loss in relation to the procurement of ambulances during Dr. Forson's tenure as Deputy Finance Minister.

The Attorney General asserts that the state incurred a loss of €2.37 million as a result of the purchase of these ambulances, which were later found to be defective. All three defendants have entered pleas of not guilty.