Legal luminary, Tsatsu Tsikata has said he does not harbour any bitterness against former President John Agyekum Kufuor.
According to Tsatsu Tsikata, despite the atrocity and abuse of his fundamental human rights, he holds no grudge against the former president.
Speaking in an interview on GHOne TV, Tsatsu Tsikata detailed, “Forgive him, there is nothing forgiven in fact you know what, I say to people I never had any bitterness or any feeling of great grievance against President Kufuor, he did atrocious things against me personally for whatever reasons he was determined to have me in prison and I did go to prison orchestrated by him on June 18, 2008, for five months by God grace I didn’t die in prison I was evacuated to a hospital and by God grace I am still alive”.
Now he tried the last day of office, to offer me a pardon, I rejected it because it was in bad faith, it was clearly in bad faith, he had orchestrated everything the day that I was being sentenced the court had not even announced that it was going to give a decision at the end of the trial, because the trial hasn’t ended.
There was something in the Supreme Court which needed to come back all that was to no account it had been set up for me to go to jail that day, I went to jail, and you know what I actually thank God for that experience”, he narrated.
He further revealed that going to Nsawam Prison took him to another faculty of law and he thanked God for his time in Jail at the Nsawam Prison.
Tsatsu Tsikata added, “I say to people going to Nsawam Prison took me to another University another faculty of law, because I engaged with many of those who were in the prison and I realise that there were other people, suffering injustices who didn’t have the kind of recourse that I had.
I had an opportunity of a lawyer, a close friend of mine from my Legon days, who gave his all to stand up for my rights that a lot of those people didn’t even have. I saw people who had been in jail for twelve years nobody had gone to court on their behave so I counted myself privileged”, he added.
An Accra Fast Track High Court on June 18, 2008, found him guilty on three counts of willfully causing financial loss of GH¢230,000 to the state and another count of misapplying public property.
After eight years of legal tussle, Tsatsu Tsikata was cleared of the charges, and the conviction was reversed unanimously by the Court of Appeal, which acquitted and discharged him.
Justice Dennis Adjei said there was a miscarriage of justice.
In a 2021 interview with KSM, Tsatsu Tsikata stated, “I think I said it nicely. I wrote him a letter on my hospital bed, and I said I would not accept his pardon, and I wouldn’t accept it.
“By then, I already had an appeal pending against the decision that had been taken. I wanted to be vindicated, not pardoned. When you are pardoned, it means that your conviction still stands, but the penalty has been wiped away.”
Expressing delight at the overturned verdict, Tsikata quoted Psalm 94:15, “Justice will again be found in the courts, and all righteous people will support it,” and emphasised that, indeed “justice has been found in the courts.”
Watch the video below:
‘I thank God for my time in jail’ – Tsatsu Tsikata pic.twitter.com/TfEmZwktwy
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