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The Dormaahene and President of the Bono Regional House of Chiefs, Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu II, has called on the Attorney-General, Mr. Godfred Dame to, “as a matter of urgency”, discontinue the criminal prosecution of the Assin North MP-elect, Hon. James Gyakye Quayson. He believes dropping all charges against Mr. Quayson will serve the interest of the nation and therefore advised the state prosecutor to activate a provision in the law which allows for a discontinuance of any case that the public shows no interest.
Speaking at the Professor John Evans Attah Mills Commemorative Lecture in Sunyani, Bono region on Saturday, July 1, Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu II, who doubles as a High Court judge and known in private life as His Lordship Daniel Mensah pleaded with the Attorney-General to consider the interest of the citizens and accordingly drop all the five charges against the MP-elect in the ongoing trial. “As a matter of urgency, I am appealing to the President, 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 insisted. His comment comes on the back of a resounding victory of Hon. James Gyakye Quayson in the June 27 by-election, beating his contender, Mr. Charles Opoku of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) with 17,245 representing 57.56 percent against 12,630 representing 42.15 percent, an indication of the overwhelming support by the chiefs and people of the constituency.
On February 12, 2022, the state, through the Attorney general charged Mr. Quayson with five counts of: deceit of a public officer, forgery of a passport, knowingly making a false statutory declaration, perjury and false declaration. He has pleaded not guilty on all five charges at the Criminal court division of the Accra High Court. He has maintained that at the time of filing his Nomination to be the parliamentary candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), he had already submitted all relevant documents for the revocation of his Canadian citizenship. He finally received his renunciation certificate on November 26, 2020, which was before the December 7 general elections. The Supreme Court however held that since Mr. James Gyakye Quayson had not received his renunciation certificate from the Canadian authorities at the time of filing, he was unqualified. The Court therefore ordered the annulment of the results which allowed the Electoral Commission (EC) to organize the by-election.
The chief, who has won the admiration of many Ghanaians over the years for being upfront with issues of national concern, disclosed that he disagrees with the Supreme Court’s ruling that made the Assin North seat vacant. He however refrained from giving further comments for his disagreement, telling the gathering he had no intention of prejudicing the criminal case currently before the Accra High Court. As a judge himself, he revealed that he would not have voted for the annulment of the results. ” I would have voted left, and wouldn’t have gone right”, he emphasized.
The Court is expected to resume the hearing of the case on Tuesday, July 4 with lawyer for Mr. Quayson, Tsatsu Tsikata having filed a fresh application against the daily appearance of the Member of Parliament.
The lecture was on the theme: “The man John Evans Atta Mills- 10 years on”. The public lecture in honour of Ghana’s former president who passed on while in office is being organized across the sixteen (16) regions of the country.
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