Legal luminary, Tsatsu Tsikata, has once again reiterated that there is nothing to forgive former Ghana president, John Agyekum Kufuor, after he was jailed under very contentious circumstances.
Tsatsu Tsikata revealed that he had never had any bitterness or grievance against former President Kufuor.
According to him, John Agyekum Kufuor did atrocious things against him for whatever reason to get him to go to prison.
Speaking on GHONE TV, Tsatsu Tsikata stated, “There is nothing to forgive. I say to people, I have never had any bitterness or grievance against President Kufuor. He did atrocious things against me for whatever reason. He was determined to have me go to prison, and I did go to prison.
“It was orchestrated by him on June 18, 2008. I was in prison for five months, but by God’s grace, I didn’t die in prison. I was evacuated to the hospital, and by God’s grace, I’m still alive”, he added.
He added, “On his last day in office, he offered me a pardon, but I rejected it because it was in bad faith. It was clearly in bad faith. He had orchestrated everything. The day I was being sentenced, the court had not even announced it was going to give a decision because the trial hadn’t ended. It had been set up for me to go to jail, and I went”.
“I actually thank God for that experience. I tell people that going to Nsawam Prison took me to another faculty of law. I engaged with many who were in prison, and I realised that there were people suffering injustices who did not have the kind of recourse that I had.
“I had the opportunity of a lawyer who gave it all to protect my rights. A lot of those people didn’t have that. I saw people who were in prison for 12 years, and nobody has gone to court on their behalf,” he said.
An Accra Fast Track High Court on June 18, 2008, found Tsatsu Tsikata 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:
