A prosecution witness said to have carried out investigations into the case over which Minority Leader and Former Deputy Finance Minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, has been charged for causing financial loss to the state, has told an Accra Economic and Financial Court that until he went through the charge statement from the first accused, he had never interrogated him on the claims contained in his witness statement before the court.
Rockson Gyimah, who currently works at the Office of the Special Prosecutor and who is described as the “investigator” of the case for which Dr. Forson and two others are facing trial, said that he only took the charge statement, which is the statement taken from an accused after he had been charged and that he had not personally interviewed or questioned Dr. Forson on the specific allegations made against him in his (investigator’s) witness statement.
Pressed by counsel for Dr. Forson, Godwin Kudzoe Tamekloe during cross-examination, Mr. Gyimah admitted that he had not apprised Dr. Forson of the claims contained in the witness statement to elicit his response.
Mr. Gyimah also admitted that he was not personally on the panel that took Dr. Forson’s ordinary statement on 17th November 2017.
Mr. Tamekloe: “Were you the one who took that (ordinary statement) from him?”.
Mr Gyimah: “We are a team”
Mr. Tamekloe: “The first accused was invited to EOCO in the company of his lawyers. Were you there when he came there that day.”
Mr. Gyimah: “I was engaged elsewhere”
Mr. Tamekloe: “In fact, I would be correct to say that the day he came to EOCO in the company of his lawyers, it was your Deputy Director, Nana Antwi who did the interrogation, is that correct?”
My Gyimah:” I was engaged somewhere”.
The court presided over by an Appeals Court Judge, Justice Afia Serwah Asare Botchwey, adjourned the proceeding for cross-examination to continue on Tuesday, 14th February 2023.
