President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s name has been captured in an affidavit signed by Justin Pwara Teriwajah, a lawyer for James Gyakye Quayson, the Member of Parliament-elect for Assin North.
The affidavit was part of filings at the Court of Appeal, where Quayson is seeking to overturn a High Court ruling that his criminal trial should be heard daily.
The lawyer stated in his affidavit that the president 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.
The part on Akufo-Addo said the High Court’s ruling has emboldened the president to make “extremely prejudicial, unjustified and insulting remarks,” about the MP-elect.
“That, at a campaign rally for the candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the said President made many prejudicial remarks, including 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.
