Lawyers Frank Davies and Abraham Amaliba were involved in a heated exchange which resulted in a near fistfight during a court appearance in the Central Region earlier today.
The two lawyers were in court in connection with the ongoing legal case filed by the New Patriotic Party which is challenging the eligibility of the Member of Parliament of Assin North, Mr James Gyakye Quayson who is represented in the case by Abraham Amaliba.
According to Joy News’ Central Regional correspondent, Kojo Nyarko who was in court today, the exchanges started when Frank Davies took exception to the fact that Mr Amaliba failed to show up in court when the case was called earlier in the year without informing him ahead of time of his absence.
He continued that Mr Frank Davies maintained that the decision of Mr Amaliba not to show up prior to today’s appearance was gross disrespect to the court and to his person.
Mr Davies had expected that since both he and Mr Amaliba practised in Accra, it would have been polite for Mr Amaliba to have informed him that he was not going to show up instead of letting him (Frank Davies) drive all the way to the Central Region only for the case to be adjourned.
Per the narration of Kojo Nyarko, Mr Amaliba took exception to the comments by Frank Davies, adding that his failure to show up at the last court date was because he was engaged in another court and not because he meant to disrespect the court or his opposing counsel.
The exchanges at this point, according to Richard Kojo Nyarko degenerated with both men literally charging at each other for a fight.
It took the security detail present at the court to separate the two gentlemen.
Judge Kwesi Boakye is alleged to have asked the two lawyers to leave the courtroom. Both men returned after almost 30 minutes and after they had been spoken to and tempers had calmed.
However, Kojo Nyarko furthered that Mr Amaliba after the court proceedings admitted that Frank Davies was his senior and subsequently both men apologized to each other.
Eligibility of Assin North Member of Parliamentary challenged
A parliamentary election petition has been filed at the Cape Coast High Court seeking to annul the declaration of Mr James Gyakye Quayson as the Member of Parliament (MP) elect for the Assin North Constituency.
Mr Quayson, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP, polled 17,498 against New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Madam Abena Durowaa Mensah who had 14,793 on December 7, 2020 election.
In November last year, a group calling itself ‘Concerned Citizens of Assin North’ petitioned the EC in the Central Region to withdraw the candidature of Mr Quayson as he owes allegiance to Canada.
He was challenged for having dual citizenship contrary to the expressed provision of Article 94 (2) (a) of the 1992 constitution of Ghana, which states, “A person shall not be qualified to be a member of Parliament if he – (a) owes allegiance to a country other than Ghana.”
Source: Ghanaweb