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Assin North MP granted GH100, 000 bail …for forgery, perjury

 The Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin North Constituency, Mr James Gyakye Quayson, was yesterday granted GH¢100, 000 bail with one surely after he appeared before the Accra High Court on the charge of forgery, perjury and knowingly making false declaration.

The accused pleaded not guilty on all three charges filed against him by the state.

 Mr Richard Takyi-Mensah, a teacher and a resident of Yamoransa in the Central  Region, has sued the MP for failing to renounce his Canadian citizenship at the time he picked nomination forms to contest the Assin North Constituency election in 2020.

As part of the bail condition, the court presided over by Justice Mary Nsenkyire, ordered the accused to deposit his passport at the Court Registrar’s office.

Before Mr Quayson was granted bail, yesterday, when the case was called, his counsel, Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, asked the court not to take the plea of his client since there were constitutional issues in the charge sheet that needed interpretation by the Supreme Court (SC).

But, the state prosecutor and Deputy Attorney-General and Minister of Justice (A-G ), Alfred Tuah Yeboah, objecting,  argued that no issue had arisen that required an interpretation by the apex court and, therefore,  prayed the court to take the plea of the MP.

After listening to both counsel for the Assin North legislator and Mr Yeboah, the court upheld the argument of the prosecutor and asked that the plea of the accused be taken.

On February 3, 2022, the Attorney-General’s Department filed criminal charges against Mr Quayson.

Last week, the High Court issued criminal summons against the accused after Mrs Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), then prosecuting,  told the court that all efforts to serve the accused with criminal summons was unsuccessful.

On July 28, 2021, a Cape Coast High Court  declared the Parliamentary election held in the Assin North Constituency on December 7, 2020, a nullity, and ordered the Electoral Commission (EC), a defendant in the case, to conduct fresh election.

Not pleased with the High Court decision, the accused appealed at the Court of Appeal, Cape Coast, but even before the court made pronouncement on the matter, the applicant, Mr Richard Takyi-Mensah, filed a motion at the SC, and asked a seven-member panel presided over by Justice Jones Dotse to order the lawmaker to stop holding himself as MP.

On Tuesday when the case was called before the SC, the judges directed the Registrar of the Court to make a direct service on Mr Quayson as an individual.

The facts according to Mr Yeboah are that, the accused on July 26, 2019, signed an application form for a Republic of Ghana passport in which accused indicated that he was a Ghanaian and does not have a dual nationality.

 Mr Yeboah said that Mr Quayson, at the time, held a Canadian citizenship issued on October 30, 2016,  but failed to declare same on the application form.

The Deputy A-G said based on alleged false information together with the other information provided by the accused on the passport application form, he was issued with a Ghanaian passport, number G2538667 on August 2, 2019.

BY MALIK SULLEMANA

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