A former Deputy Finance Minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, has issued a rejoinder in response to the Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice’s statement regarding a financial loss case against the legislator.
Government has sued the Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam lawmaker and two others for allegedly causing financial loss to the state to the tune of €2.37 million in a deal to purchase 200 ambulances for the country between 2014 and 2016.
Mr. Ato Forson claimed at a press conference on December 24, 2021, that his prosecution for wilfully causing financial loss to the State was initiated because he started raising concerns about the government’s 2022 Budget and Economic Policy.
In a press release on Wednesday, January 5, 2022, signed by a Deputy Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Diana Asonaba Dapaah, the Office rejected the claims made by Dr. Forson.
The press release also said the claim made by Dr. Forson is intended to cause public disaffection for the Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice.
“Laden with factual misrepresentations and calculated at scandalizing the criminal proceedings pending in the High Court against the Member of Parliament and exposing the Attorney-General to prejudice and hatred.”
But Dr. Forson has hit back at the Attorney General, saying the office cannot order him on how to respond to such “malicious” allegations against him.
“I have noted a statement issued by a Deputy Attorney General claiming that by speaking out against the malice and deliberate political persecution inherent in the decision to prosecute me, I am exposing the Attorney General to ‘hate’ and ‘prejudice’.”
“I wish to state that the Attorney General’s office cannot determine my reaction to the sinister plot to needlessly tarnish my reputation and rob me of my liberty simply because I remain implacably opposed to the poor economic policies of this government, and in particular the E-Levy.”
Below is the full rejoinder from Dr. Ato Forson
I have noted a statement issued by a Deputy Attorney General claiming that by speaking out against the malice and deliberate political persecution inherent in the decision to prosecute me, I am exposing the Attorney General to “hate” and “prejudice”.
I wish to state that the Attorney General’s office cannot determine my reaction to the sinister plot to needlessly tarnish my reputation and rob me of my liberty simply because I remain implacably opposed to the poor economic policies of this government and in particular the E-Levy.
It is the Attorney General who is driven by hate, prejudice and demagoguery! He is the one abusing his prosecutorial powers to silence critical political opponents.
For instance on Paragraph 7 of the AG’s statement issued yesterday, it was claimed that;
“As stated in the facts of the case filed in court on 22nd December 2011, the cabinet endorsed an executive approval of a joint memorandum submitted to the cabinet by the then Minister for Health and the first accused Cassiel Ato Forson, then Deputy Minister for Finance, for the purchase of 200 ambulances out of a medium-term credit facility of €15,800,000 between Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited and the Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Finance.”
For the avoidance of doubt, the Cabinet memo for the purchase of the Ambulances was submitted in December 2011. I became a Deputy minister on the 2nd of May 2013. How could I have signed a cabinet MEMO in December 2011?
