Government refused to clear ambulances in order to prosecute Ato Forson – NDC

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has provided reasons why it believes the government has refused to clear some of the ambulances referenced in the trial of the Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson.

NDC Chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, insisted that the vehicles and accompanying medical equipment have been in the country for the past eight years.

He said this at the party’s press conference in Accra on Tuesday, May 28, 2024.

“All that was required for this government to do was to clear the medical equipment from the port and give the engineers of BigSea access to the ambulance which have been parked at the Airforce base in Accra to install them,” he said.

Mr Nketiah expressed suspicion that the neglect of the vehicle, allowing them to rot away at the port, validates their claim that the Attorney General, Godfred Dame is targeting the Minority Leader through unjust means.

“We firmly believe that the decision to take the Minority Leader and some others to court over this matter was borne out of malicious, sinister and wicked desires to silence him through unjust imprisonment, nothing more, nothing less,” he added.

For him, the timing of the case demonstrates the government’s plot to silence the Minority Leader.

Prosecution’s facts

Per the facts of the case presented by the prosecution in 2009 while delivering the State of the Nation Address, the then President, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, indicated that new ambulances would be purchased to expand the operations of the National Ambulance Service.

The facts said, Jakpa, who is a local representative of Big Sea General Trading Ltd, a company based in Dubai, subsequently approached the Ministry of Health with a proposal that he had arranged for finance from Stanbic Bank for the supply of 200 ambulances to the government.

Parliament approved the financing agreement between the government and Stanbic Bank.

According to the facts, on November 19, 2012, Dr Anemana wrote to the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) seeking approval to engage Big Sea through single sourcing for the supply of the 200 ambulances.

The facts added that on August 7, 2014, Dr Forson wrote to the Bank of Ghana for Letters of Credit covering €3.95 million for the supply of 50 ambulances in favour of Big Sea.

The Letters of Credit were accordingly released to Big Sea.

It is the case of the prosecution that 10 of the ambulances delivered under the deal on December 16, 2014, were fundamentally defective with some not even having any medical equipment in them, causing a financial loss to the state.