The Dormaahene, Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu II, has politically appealed to the Attorney-General (AG), Godfred Yeboah Dame, to drop the criminal charges against James Gyakye Quayson, the Member of Parliament-elect for Assin North.
James Gyakye Quayson is facing trial for perjury at the High Court in Accra.
He is facing charges of forgery and perjury in relation to certain alleged offenses in the run-up to the 2020 Assin North parliamentary election.
He has pleaded not guilty to five counts of forgery of passport or travel certificate, knowingly making a false statutory declaration, perjury, and false declaration for office.
It is the case of the prosecution that Mr. Quayson allegedly made a false statement to the Passport Office that he did not hold a passport to another country when he applied for a Ghanaian Passport.
In addition, the prosecution has accused Mr. Quayson of making a false declaration to the Electoral Commission (EC) to the effect that he (Quayson) did not owe any allegiance to a foreign country when he filed to contest as a candidate for the Assin North seat in 2020.
By-election
Quayson used to be a dual citizen with allegiance to Canada and Ghana.
Prior to the 2020 parliamentary election, he had initiated moves with an application to renounce his Canadian citizenship but had not received his renunciation certificate at the time of filing with the EC to contest.
Per the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the 1992 Constitution, since Quayson had not received his renunciation certificate, he was still a Canadian citizen at the time he filed with the Electoral Commission to contest the 2020 election, and so he was, therefore, not qualified.
The 2020 parliamentary election results at Assin North were therefore annulled and the seat was declared vacant.
With his Canadian citizenship renunciation certificate currently in his grip as he received it later in 2020, he was now qualified to contest and so the NDC gave him the nod to re-contest. He won the by-election against the New Patriotic Party’s Charles Opoku and is now set to be sworn in as MP for Assin North.
Perjury case
However, the charges of forgery and perjury in relation to certain alleged offenses in the run-up to the 2020 Assin North parliamentary election are still pending.
Dormaahene’s appeal
“As a matter of urgency, I [Dormaahene] am appealing to the President [Akufo-Addo], if he has any role to play, and the Attorney-General to file a nolle prosequi to abort the criminal case against Mr. Quayson”, he said.
Insisting that it was needless for the A-G to continue the case after the chiefs and people of the Assin North constituency re-elected Quayson, Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu, who is also the President of the Bono Regional House of Chiefs said the law has a provision or permitted the A-G to discontinue any case that citizens were not interested.
He was speaking at the Bono, Bono East, Ahafo, and Western North regional version of the Professor John Evans Atta Mills Commemorative Lecture in Sunyani on Saturday [July 1, 2023].
The Dormaahene said the 17,245 votes representing 57.56 percent of the valid votes cast for Mr. Quayson was a signal that the constituents had trusted and believed in him to be their MP.
The lecture was organized on the theme: “The man John Evans Atta Mills – 10 years on”.
Various speakers at the lecture described the late Prof Mills as a unifier, peacemaker, truthful, God-fearing man, humble, tolerant, listening skills, patience, and selfless among others.
As part of the lecture, a 24-book page titled “Atta Mills Speaks to the World” was launched.
The book captured Prof Mills’ statements at the 64th, 65th, and 66th General Assembly of the United Nations, during his term as President.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, has declared that any chief that endorses a party or any candidate or asks his people to vote for Political Party A or B overtly or covertly has engaged in “active party politics,” thereby breaching Article 276(1) of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.
