The Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Thomas Oppong-Peprah, has refuted claims that he provided the dismissal letter of Richard Jakpa, the third defendant in the ongoing ambulance trial, to the Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul.
General Oppong-Peprah explained that no such request for the letter had been made to him, and therefore, he could not account for how the Minister came to possess the document.
In the courtroom, Deputy Attorney-General Alfred Tuah-Yeboah, during his cross-examination of Jakpa on Thursday, June 27, presented a letter allegedly detailing Jakpa’s dismissal from the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) in 2007.
The letter, introduced as evidence, purportedly came from the Defence Minister’s office and cited misconduct and violations of military protocols as reasons for Jakpa’s dismissal.
Jakpa’s legal team contested the letter’s relevance and sought to exclude it from evidence.
Despite their objections, the presiding judge, Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, admitted the letter, noting that it had been acknowledged by the witness and was valid for establishing the document’s authenticity.
On Monday, during further proceedings, the Chief of Defence Staff reiterated that he had not issued the dismissal letter to the Defence Minister.
“My lady, as the Chief of Defense Staff, I have never received any request to release any document to anybody. So I can’t answer to that,” he said.