James Gyakye Quayson
The Supreme Court has granted an application for substituted service for the embattled Member of Parliament for Assin North, James Gyakye Quayson.
The grant of the motion filed by lawyers for Michael Ankomah Nimfah, the man who got the Cape Coast High Court to remove the MP from Parliament for holding Ghanaian and Canadian citizenship, came after several attempts by the applicant to serve the writ and court processes on the MP failed.
The MP is alleged to have been dodging bailiffs who had attempted to serve him with the writ which is seeking the Supreme Court to place an injunction on him to prevent him from holding himself out as the MP for Assin North and taking any further part in parliamentary proceedings.
An attempt by a bailiff to serve him on the corridors of the Accra High Court where he is standing trial for criminal charges of perjury, deceit of public officer, among others also failed on February 15.
The writ is also seeking the Supreme Court to interpret Article 94(2)(a) of the 1992 Constitution which states that “A person shall not be qualified to be a member of Parliament if he owes allegiance to a country other than Ghana.”
Substituted Service
Moving the motion, Frank Davies, counsel for the applicant said a bailiff of the High Court in Assin Fosu who was entrusted with the processes regarding the writ has filed an affidavit of non-service.
He, therefore, prayed the court to grant an order for substituted service for copies of the court processes to be pasted on the frontage of the MP’s house.
A seven-member panel of the court presided over by Justice Jones Dotse and assisted by Justices Agnes Dordzie, Nene Amegatcher, Mariama Owusu, Gertrude Torkornoo, Henrietta Mensah-Bonsu, and Yoni Kulendi granted the application for substituted service and ordered that the writ be published in the Daily Graphic newspaper.
The court said the processes become effective seven days after publication, and added that March 1, which was initially set as the return date for the sitting was no longer applicable as the MP will not be afforded the mandated seven days to file his response.
The court said a new date would be fixed by the Chief Justice for the hearing.
Vacate Seat
A Cape Coast High Court last year found that at the time of filing his nomination to contest in the parliamentary election which he won in December 7, 2020, he held dual citizenship which is against the laws of Ghana.
This was after Mr. Nimfah filed a petition challenging the qualification of Mr. Quayson to be an MP, intimating that per Article 94 of the 1992 Constitution, the Representation of the People Law, Act 284 and the CI 127, Mr. Quayson was not qualified at the time of filing to contest the 2020 parliamentary elections, and should be disqualified.
The petitioner had claimed that as at the time Mr. Quayson was filing his papers with the Electoral Commission to enable him to go to Parliament, he was holding dual citizenship (both Ghanaian and Canadian), which the 1992 Constitution expressly does not allow for all those aspiring to hold public office in Ghana.
The court, at the end of the trial in August last year, found that Mr. Quayson was not qualified to contest the election as he held dual citizenship and consequently ordered him to vacate the seat for a new election to be conducted.
He has since filed an appeal against the decision of the High Court.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak