James Gyakye Quayson
THE MEMBER of Parliament for Assin North, James Gyakye Quayson, was over the weekend served with court processes seeking an interlocutory injunction to bar him from further taking part in parliamentary proceedings.
The application for interlocutory injunction, which was filed at the Supreme Court by Michael Ankomah Nimfah, is seeking to prohibit the MP, after he defied a Cape Coast High Court’s order to vacate his seat for a fresh election.
The High Court had found that the MP was holding both Ghanaian and Canadian citizenship at the time he filed his nomination to contest the 2020 election, an act that breaches Article 94 Clause 2(a) of the Constitution.
The plaintiff wants the Supreme Court to bar the MP from carrying himself out as the MP for Assin North as well as the interpretation of Article 94(2a) which deals with dual citizenship.
The processes were served through substituted service after all efforts to serve the MP personally proved futile.
Attempts by a bailiff of the Assin Fosu High Court to serve him through his residential address at Assin Bereku failed, as were attempts to serve him through his residential address in Accra.
A bailiff of the Supreme Court was allegedly manhandled after the MP ordered his bodyguard to throw him out, when he attempted to serve the MP at his Job 600 office in Parliament House.
Frank Davies, counsel for Mr. Nimfah, therefore, applied for an order of substituted service which was granted by a seven-member panel of the Supreme Court presided over by Justice Jones Dotse, and assisted by Justice Agnes Dordzie, Nene Amegatcher, Mariama Owusu, Gertrude Torkornoo, Prof. Henrietta Mensah-Bonsu and Yonny Kulendi
The plaintiff was granted leave to paste copies of the writ on the gate of the MP’s residence at Assin Bereku, on the notice boards of the Supreme Court and the Assin Fosu High Court.
Copies of the notice of the writs were also to be published in the Daily Graphic which becomes valid within seven (7) days of publication.
These directives were complied with by the plaintiff, with copies of the writ posted on the wall to his house at Assin Bereku.
Copies were also posted on the notice boards of the Supreme Court and Assin Fosu High Court, while the publication in the Daily Graphic was done on February 26, 2022.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak