Court issues criminal summons against Assin North MP over perjury

James Gyakye Quayson, who has been a subject matter of criminal charges including perjury has been invading service.

In court on Wednesday, February 9, 2022, the Director of Public Prosecution Mrs Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa said all efforts to serve the accused has yielded no results.

Explaining to the court what transpired since February 1 when the case was first called, she said on February 3, “we caused hearing notice to be issued to the address of accused at Assin Bereku in the Central Region.”

Subsequent to that, the DPP said, “We got the Accra address of the accused and the police posted a copy of the hearing notice on the inside door of the accused house at the Manet Estate in Accra.”

The DPP also told the court that, on Feb 7, they caused a hearing notice through the court bailiff to the home of the accused in Accra.

She explained further that, on the same day, “the police investigator posted a copy of the charge sheet on the home of the accused.”

According to her even though, the police met an occupant in the house, the person refused to accept the service and said the accused had gone out.

‘With the attempt, we have made” the prosecution prayed for “a bench warrant be issued for his arrest to enable him to attend the trial.”

But the court presided over by Mary Maame Afua Nsenkyire ordered that a criminal summon, charge and fact sheet be posted at his home at Manet estate.

The case has been adjourned to February 15, 2022.

The State on February 3, charged James Gyakye Quayson, the Member of Parliament for Assin North with five counts including perjury.

Mr Quayson, who contested the Parliamentary seat of the Assin North Constituency and won on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress, has had his seat declared vacant by the Cape Coast High Court due to his Canadian nationality switch.

With the latest being a criminal suit filed on behalf of the Attorney General by the Director of Public Prosecution Mrs Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, Mr Quayson is facing five criminal charges.

The charges are Deceit of Public officer, forgery of passport or travel certificates, knowingly making a false statutory declaration, perjury and false declaration for office.

Brief facts

According to the brief facts of the case, the accused person James Gyakye Quayson is a Member of Parliament for Assin North Constituency.

It said, the complainant, Richard Takyi-Mensah is a teacher and a resident of Yamoransa in the Central Region of Ghana.

According to the prosecution, on July 26, 2019, the accused person signed an application form for a Republic of Ghana passport.

It said, in the application form, he indicated that he is a Ghanaian and does not have dual citizenship.

The prosecution stated that the accused at the time held Canadian citizenship issued on October 30, 2016, but failed to declare the same on the application form.

The prosecution added that the passport application of the accused person was vetted on July 29, 2019.

“Based on this false information together with the other information provided by the accused person on the passport application form, he was issued with a Ghanaian passport, number G2538667 on 2nd August 2019,” the brief facts stated.

Election 2020

The brief facts stated that “before the 2020 General Elections of Ghana was conducted on 7th December 2020, nominations were opened between the 5th and the 9th of October 2020.

“The accused person picked up nomination forms to contest for the position of Member of Parliament for Assin North Constituency.

“The accused person at the time was a Ghanaian and a Canadian citizen, making him a dual citizenship holder” the brief facts stated.

“He was therefore disqualified under Article 94(2)(a) of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana to be a Member of Parliament.

“In part IV of the nomination forms of the Electoral Commission of Ghana, the accused person used a statutory declaration which he had sworn to on 6th October 2020 before the District Court Registrar at Assin Fosu stating that he does not owe allegiance to any country other than Ghana,” it stated.

“The accused person further went ahead to file his nomination forms on 8th October 2020 with the false information in the statutory declaration.

“Based on this false information together with other information provided by the accused person in the nomination forms, his nomination was accepted by the Electoral Commission,” the prosecution noted.

Victory in election 2020

He contested for the position and subsequently won the seat. The accused person was issued a Certificate of Renunciation of his Canadian citizenship dated 26th November 2020, about forty-eight days after he had made the false statutory declaration and filed his nomination forms.

On 14th January 2021, the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department received a petition dated 11th January 2021 from the complainant in which the complainant reported these actions of the accused, leading to investigations against him.

In his cautioned statement to the police, the accused person claimed that at the material time, he honestly believed that he did not owe allegiance to any other country.

The accused person was subsequently charged with the offences in the charge sheet.

It is based on these facts that the accused person, James Gyakye Quayson has been arraigned for trial.