Habib Iddrisu, the Member of Parliament for Tolon, has been sued by Yaw Brogya Genfi, an aspirant National Youth Organiser for the opposition NDC.
In the writ of summons available to GhanaWeb, the plaintiff is seeking the Supreme Court to annul the 2020 parliamentary polls which returned the Nw Patriotic Party member as an MP.
But why does Brogya Genfi wants the court to annul the 2020 elections?
The Tolon MP prior to filing his forms to contest the Tolon on NPP’s ticket was a resident of the Commonwealth of Australia.
While in Australia, the MP was charged with a count of forgery and ten counts of fraud. He pleaded guilty to all the charges when he was dragged before the Perth Magistrates Court.
According to the affidavit attached to the writs, Habib Iddrisu forged and fraudulently used the Master Card of Gideon Tafon, a Cameroonian, to make purchases.
The Western Australia Police, Murdoch Police Station told Tafon on December 5, 2011, that an order of restitution was made by the court in his [Tafon] favour after Iddrisu was convicted by the Magistrate.
“The plaintiff avers that, prior to the date of filing his nomination to contest the 2020 Parliamentary Elections and his subsequent election as the MP for Tolon Constituency, the 1st Defendant was resident in the Commonwealth of Australia.
“The plaintiff asserts that whilst resident in the Commonwealth of Australia, the 1st Defendant was charged with one count of forgery and ten counts of fraud and stood trial before the Perth Magistrates Court. The 1st Defendant pleaded guilty to all the charges.
“According to a document obtained by the plaintiff from the victim of the 1st Defendant’s crimes and attached to the affidavit in verification filed in this Court, the 1st Defendant forged and fraudulently used the Master Card of one Mr. Gideon Tafon, the complainant, to make purchases.
“In a letter dated 5 December 2011, the Western Australia Police, Murdoch Police Station wrote to Mr. Gideon Tafon to inform him that an order of restitution of an amount $4,999.00 was made by the Magistrate in Mr. Gideon Tafon’s favour after the conviction of the 1st Defendants by the Magistrate. Again in the said letter, it was stated that the 1st Defendant had informed the court that he had paid the said money in full to Mr Gideon Tafon. …,” paragraphs 7, 8, 9 and 10 of the writ read.
The plaintiff in the writ stated that the MP was convicted of fraud and forgery in Australia in 2011.
Genfi indicated further that the MP was at the time convicted “on his own plea by the Perth Magistrates Court in Australia on the 28 of November 2011 and ten (10) years had not passed at the time when Mr. Habib Iddrisu filed his nomination for the said elections.”
Article 94 (c)(i) of the 1992 Constitution stipulates that a person shall not be qualified to be a member of Parliament if he “has been convicted for high crime under this Constitution or high treason or treason or for an offence involving the security of the State, fraud, dishonesty or moral turpitude”
Article 94(5)(a) provides that a person shall not be taken to be disqualified to be a member of Parliament under paragraph (c) or (d) of clause (2) of this article if- (a) ten years or more have passed since the end of the sentence or the date of the publication of the report of the commission or committee of inquiry.
