President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo engaged in prejudicial comments when he said at a campaign in Assin North that voters needed not vote for a parliamentary candidate who is likely to end up in jail.
This is the view of Justin Pwara Teriwajah, a lwayer for James Gyakye Quayson, the National Democratic Congress Member of Parliament, Akufo-Addo was referring to.
The lawyer said, Akufo-Addo was following the line towed by his Attorney General Godfred Dame who weeks back accused Quayson of taking a risk with his candidature despite having a criminal trial against him.
In an affidavit before the Court of Appeal in seeking to stay a High Court order for daily trial of Quayson on five counts, Justin Pwara Teriwajah said Akufo-Addo’s words were because of the High Court’s ruling which they held contained “errors in law.”
The part on Akufo-Addo read in part: “That, apparently emboldened by the ruling of the court on 23rd June 2023, the extremely prejudicial, unjustified and insulting remarks of the Attorney-General were escalated to the level of the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
“That, at a campaign rally for the candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the said President made many prejudicial remarks, inclusing some to the effect that the voters in Assin North Constituency should not vote for a candidate who could end up in prison.”
It went on to provide a GhanaWeb link to the said comments and stated that the accused will seek leave of the court to play a video clip of the remarks of Akufo-Addo at the said rally.
On the substantive case, Quayson’s lawyers led by Tsatsu Tsikata want a Stay of Proceedings pending the determination of his appeal on grounds of several errors of law committed by the trial judge which breached Quayson’s right to a fair trial.
Despite standing trial for five charges, the MP-elect stood for and won the June 27 by-election according to the Electoral Commission’s announcement, he garnered a total of 17,245 votes, representing 57.56% of the total votes cast.
His closest contender, Charles Opoku of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), received 12,630 votes, accounting for 42.15% of the votes.
Bernice Enyonam Sefenu of the Liberal Party Ghana (LPG) secured 87 votes, which represented 0.29% of the overall tally.
The by-election in Assin North was held to fill the parliamentary seat left vacant following a legal battle that questioned Quayson’s eligibility to hold office due to dual citizenship concerns.
Source: ghanaweb.com
