A private legal practitioner has expressed disagreement with the advice given by High Court Judge Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, suggesting that Attorney General (AG) Godfred Dame should recuse himself from the ongoing ambulance procurement case.
During an interview on JoyNews’ The Pulse on Thursday, June 6, Kweku Paintsil argued that there is no valid reason for the Attorney General to step down from the case.
He stated, “An advice is an advice; you can take it or leave it. I don’t personally, with due respect, see any justification for the Attorney General to recuse himself from the case.”
The lawyer’s comment comes after a sitting High Court Judge on Thursday advised the Attorney General to recuse himself from the ambulance procurement case involving Dr Cassiel Ato Forson and Richard Jakpa, citing allegations of professional and prosecutorial misconduct.
But Mr Paintsil explained that the specific allegation made against the AG was dismissed by the judge, adding, “I am not too sure that it is going to have any impact on the substantive trial.
Even if there is any such allegation that can be proven, it does not hold the substance of the matter before the judge. It is an issue of the conduct of the Attorney General which may be tried in a different forum.”
According to Mr. Paintsil, if the judge has sufficient reasons to recuse the AG, she has the authority to do so. However, he noted that in this case, the judge does not have good reasons, hence the advice.
Consequently, he believes the AG is not obliged to accept advice from a sitting judge.
Nevertheless, he mentioned that if the AG decides to take the advice, that would be acceptable.