James Gyakye Quayson, the electorate’s lead attorney, will begin an appeal procedure in the Court of Appeal’s Criminal Division today (June 29), appealing the Accra High Court judge’s decision to order a daily trial for his client.
Tsatsu Tsikata’s action is intended to guarantee that the MP-elect has a fair trial in the criminal case he is currently facing.
Justin Pwara Teriwajah, Quayson’s attorney, said in an affidavit that the High Court judge’s decision to permit a daily trial for their client committed “errors of law.”
In a section of his affidavit, he claimed that the court’s decision had taken a political turn and that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had made disparaging remarks in response to it.
He claimed that the president had stressed the Attorney General’s remark that Gyakye Quayson had chosen irresponsibly to run for a parliamentary seat while under investigation for a crime.
“That, apparently encouraged by the court’s decision on June 23, 2023, the Attorney-General’s extremely prejudicial, unjustified, and insulting remarks were escalated to the level of the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo,” said the section on Akufo-Addo.
“That the said President made many unfavorable comments at a rally for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate, including some to the effect that the voters in Assin North Constituency should not support a candidate who could end up in prison.”
It continued by giving a GhanaWeb link to the aforementioned remarks and announcing that the accused would ask the court for permission to show a video clip of Akufo-Addo’s words from the aforementioned event.
On the basis of a number of legal errors made by the trial judge that violated Quayson’s right to a fair trial, Quayson’s attorneys requested a suspension of proceedings in the substantive matter awaiting the outcome of his appeal.
The MP-elect ran in and won the June 27 by-election despite facing trial on five counts. According to the announcement made by the Electoral Commission, he received a total of 17,245 votes, or 57.56% of the total votes cast.
Charles Opoku of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who was his closest rival, received 12,630 votes, or 42.15 percent of the vote.
The Liberal Party of Ghana’s (LPG) Bernice Enyonam Sefenu received 87 votes, or 0.29% of the total cast.
In Assin North, a by-election was held to fill the parliamentary seat that became vacant after a legal dispute regarding Quayson’s eligibility to occupy office due to dual citizenship issues.
