The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday granted an ex-parte application for substituted service on the Assin North Constituency Member of Parliament (MP), James Gyakye Quayson, through the media.
The seven-member panel of judges presided over by Justice Jones Dotse ordered that the application be published in the print media.
The substituted service would be deemed valid after seven days of the publication in the media.
The SC gave the order after several attempts by the applicant, Mr Michael Ankomah Nimfah, a teacher and resident of Yamorasa in the Central Region, to serve the MP was unsuccessful.
Mr Ninfa was seeking an interlocutory injunction from the SC to stop Mr Quayson from holding himself out as MP.
In moving the motion, counsel for the applicant, Frank Davis, counsel for the applicant, urged the court to allow copies of the motion to be posted on his frontage and doors of Mr Quayson’s home.
Mr Ninfa sued the Assin North MP, at the Cape Coast for failing to renounce his (MP) Canadian citizenship when he ‘picked’ nomination forms to contest the 2020 constituency election.
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, 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, a teacher and a resident of Yamoransa in the Central Region of Ghana, filed a motion at the Supreme Court, and asked a seven-member panel presided over by Justice Jones Dotse to order the lawmaker to stop holding himself as MP.
The Assin North lawmaker is currently facing criminal prosecution at the Accra High Court.
On February 15, the court granted Mr Quayson GH100,000 bail with one surety after he was charged with forgery, perjury and knowingly making false declaration.
The facts according to the Deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Alfred Tuah-Yeboah, are that, accused on July 26, 2019, signed an application form for a Republic of Ghana passport, in which accused indicated that he is a Ghanaian and does not have a dual citizenship.
He 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.
It is the case of the prosecution that passport application of the accused person was vetted on July 29, 2019.
Mr Tuah-Yeboah 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.
Prosecution said before the General Election was conducted on December 7, 2020, nominations were opened between October 5 and 9, 2020, and the accuser ‘picked ‘up nomination forms to the contest the election.
“The accused at the time was a Ghanaian and a Canadian citizen, making him a dual citizenship holder,”Mr Tuah-Yeboah said.
Prosecution indicated that accused was disqualified under Article 94(2)(a) of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana to be a Member of Parliament.
BY MALIK SULLEMANA
