Member of Parliament for Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam Constituency, Casiel Ato Forson, has accused the Attorney-General of a sinister plot to ruin his reputation in the country with his filing of some criminal charges against him along with some other persons.
Contained in a Facebook post dated, Thursday January 6, 2021, Mr Forson indicated that the Attorney General is driven by “hate, prejudice and demagoguery”. He explained that the Attorney-General is actually the one abusing his “prosecutorial powers” to silence critical political opponents.
“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”.
Mr Cassiel Ato Forson
A press release issued on January 5, by the Deputy Attorney-General, Diana Asonaba Dapaah, explained that an earlier conference organized by the NDC saw Mr Ato Forson make comments geared towards discrediting the Attorney-General.
Cassiel Ato Forson debunks criminal claims
Dr Forson iterated that the statement issued by the Deputy Attorney General claimed that by speaking out against the malice and deliberate political persecution inherent in the decision to prosecute him, he is exposing the Attorney General to “hate” and “prejudice”.
Mr Ato Forson insisted that the claims have nothing to do with the said ambulances as advertised by the AG’s office but rather they are influenced by ulterior motives.
“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, cabinet endorsed an executive approval of a joint memorandum submitted to 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”.
Mr Cassiel Ato Forson
Considering that his tenure as Deputy Minister of the Finance Ministry began in 2013, the legislator quizzed, “how could I have signed a cabinet MEMO in December 2011?”.
Mr Ato Forson had earlier described the charges of willfully causing financial loss to the state, as frivolous and politically motivated. He explained that although he is yet to be formally charged in court, he has seen copies of the charge sheet in the media and “wish to say without any fear of contradiction that these charges are nothing but a frivolous and politically motivated attempt by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo and his hatchet man, the Attorney General, to silence me for performing my duties as the Ranking Member on the Finance Committee of the Parliament of Ghana”.
Reacting to this however, the AG’s press statement revealed that Mr Forson’s statement was laden with factual misrepresentations and calculated at scandalizing the criminal proceedings pending in the High Court against the Member of Parliament.
