Richard Jakpa, the third accused in the ongoing ambulance trial suffered a significant blow on Thursday when a witness he had subpoenaed to support his case testified against him.
Jakpa had dragged a witness from the Armed Forces to court to give evidence to support his case but this was not to be as the witness led evidence highlighting a supposed professional misconduct leading to the dismissal of the accused from the Armed Forces.
It would be recalled that during Jakpa’s cross examination by the prosecution, specifically on 27th June, Japka’s credibility was significantly impeached particularly with the tendering into evidence his damming military records which spoke about Jakpa’s fraudulent conduct, abrasiveness and general indiscipline, which are incompatible with decent and gentlemanly composure required of officers of the Ghana Armed Forces.
On Thursday, July 18, Jakpa had sought to repair the damage that had been done to his case by subpoenaing the Military Secretary to testify in the case. However, the testimony of the Military Secretary did no good to Richard Japka’s case at all.
Air Commodore Adu Gyamfi, the Military Secretary, testified that Jakpa’s dismissal letter was prepared after many reports, discussions and interviews had been conducted with Richard Jakpa.
Strangely, Jakpa’s lawyer, Thaddeus Sory, who subpoenaed the Military Secretary and requested for specific documents to be produced by the witness, failed to ask a single question about the documents he had requested for, or to ask the witness to tender those documents.
Lawyer for the first accused, Dr. Ato Forson, indicated that he did not have a single question for the subpoenaed witness.
When it got to the turn of the Republic to cross-examine, the Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame leading the prosecution, asked the Military Secretary whether he had brought to court the documents Mr Jakpa’s lawyer had subpoenaed him to produce, to which the witness answered in the positive.
The Prosecution asked the witness to tender the documents in evidence.
The first document tendered and accepted by the court in evidence was a Special Report on Richard Jakpa dated 20th May, 2004 and entitled “SPECIAL REPORT ON LIEUTENANT RA JAKPA”.
The Attorney-General asked the Military Secretary to read the whole document to the hearing of the court, which the witness did.
The report elaborated on Jakpa’s misconduct in the Ghana Armed Forces and noted that Richard Jakpa’s conduct was “not only unacceptable but smacks of indiscipline” and is “lackadaisical and unprofessional”.
The report prepared by Richard Jakpa’s own Commanding Officer, indicated that the Commanding Officer had on numerous occasions interviewed the 3rd accused about many incidents of misconduct but the situation persisted. And that, Japka had failed many times to write his examinations, and also failed to report to barracks after attending courses.
In addition, he was sent on a mission to Lebanon and became indebted to a local Lebanese businessman in Lebanon, Tarek Ezziddine.
Further, he was nominated to attend a One Month orientation course at RHQ Recce Regiment. He attended classes for only 3 days in Week One, 1 day in Week Two and Week Three. The Special Report concluded that Japka’s conduct in the Regiment had “reached its climax” since both formal and informal interviews were not yielding any results.
Mr. Dame asked the witness whether Mr. Jakpa was given a copy of the Special Report on him. The witness answered “Yes”, and indicated that it is even stated on the document that Jakpa is one of those who were given copies of the Special Report.
The Attorney-General asked the witness to tender the document in evidence. This was admitted by the court. Mr. Dame asked Air Commodore Adu Gyamfi whether he was aware that the documents the prosecution had already tendered at the trial regarding Jakpa’s military records were given to the Attorney-General officially by the Minister for Defence. The witness stated that, yes, he was aware.
The A-G then asked the witness whether, from the evidence he had given in court, he would say that Richard Jakpa was honourably released from the service. Air Commodore Adu Gyamfi stated that from what he had tendered, Richard Jakpa was not honourably released from the service. Also, if one is honourably released from the Military, it would be expressly stated in one’s release letter that one is being honourably released. However, no such thing was done in Richard Jakpa’s situation.