• Lawyer Afrifa has on Monday, July 19 had a 6-hour closed meeting with the CID
• According to him, he visited the CID voluntarily
• He noted that he did nothing wrong in citing the Chief Justice in the case
Private legal practitioner, Akwasi Afrifa, has shown up at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters in Accra on Monday, July 19, 2021 to give some details on the $5m bribery allegations levelled against Chief Justice, Akoto Ampaw.
According to him, he visited the CID under no duress, nor arrest, stressing that, he voluntarily walked to the CID.
Lawyer Afrifa told the media that his response to the CID on the case is not for public consumption hence, his reason to stay mute until the CID officially speaks on the issue.
“You’d have to find out from the CID, I don’t intend to speak. I came here voluntarily, nobody arrested me..I have not done anything wrong, if you look at the accusations against me, I have given my response. My response is not public knowledge…I don’t have anything to say,” These were his words to the media before walking off to sit in a taxi.
Chief Justice Kwasi Annin-Yeboah on Monday, July 12, directed the Department of the Police (CID) to conduct investigations into a bribery allegation against him.
He also directed that a petition be lodged with the Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Council in respect of this specific matter.
But there have been calls by the opposition National Democratic Congress and ASEPA asking the Chief Justice to recuse himself for another judge to take over the case.
They argued that it is not right for the Chief Justice to set up a committee to investigate the bribery allegations against him.
Background
The Chief Justice and lawyer Akoto Ampaw have been named in a statement by one Kwasi Afrifa of O&A Legal Consult, addressed to the Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Council, in which he [Afrifa] alleges that his client, Ogyeedom Obranu Kwesi Atta VI, once told him that “the Chief Justice had demanded a bribe of US$5,000,000 for a successful outcome of his case.”
Kwasi Afrifa’s statement dated July 8, 2021, is a response to a claim by Ogyeedom Obranu Kwesi Atta VI that he [Afrifa] while handling his case – Ogyeedom Obranu Kwesi Atta VI v Ghana Telecommunications Co. Ltd. – suggested to him [Ogyeedom] to “provide an amount of US$100,000 to enable him to do some ways and means (gymnastics)” on the case “so that we can obtain a favorable decision.”
Ogyeedom in his petition to the GLC on March 1, 2021, said despite knowing he had a good case before the Supreme Court of Ghana, he heeded the advice of his lawyer. However, he later realized that money was not used for the intended purpose.
“…so I fired him from the case and asked him to refund the money but he has since refunded US$25,000 leaving a balance of US$75,000 due and owing to me. All efforts to retrieve the amount have failed,” Ogyeedom Obranu Kwesi Atta VI stated while he appealed to the Chairman of the General Legal Council to help him retrieve the remaining amount from lawyer Kwasi Afrifa.
In a three-paged response available to GhanaWeb, Kwasi Afrifa has unequivocally denied all the claims. According to him, he never suggested to Ogyeedom Obranu Kwesi Atta VI to provide any amount for what he described as ‘ways and means’.
While Kwasi Afrifa admitted to being Ogyeedom Obranu Kwesi Atta VI’s former attorney, he refuted the latter’s claim of requesting and taking funds to bribe the Chief Justice.
“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 goodself as the lawyer handling the case for him and engage Akoto Ampaw Esq in my stead,” Kwasi 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,” Afrifa added.
After the said demand was made, Afrifa said he rather took a decision to refund the amount Ogyeedom Obranu Kwesi Atta VI paid him for handling his case. This, he argued, he did out of a sense of dignity.
He said: “we aggregated the GH¢300,000 paid to me as being the equivalent of US$50,000 which I was to refund to him without any timeline being indicated. He said he wanted the payment in dollars because he was raising the remainder of the money to be paid the Chief Justice, and that currency was the currency of choice.
“On the 27th of January 2021, I paid an amount of US$25,000 to the petitioner and subsequently paid US$15,000 to him making a total of US$40,000 so the outstanding amount that I have to refund to him is US$10,000. I am ready willing and able to make the said payment of US10,000 when I appear before the Committee on the 15th of July, 2021.”