Supreme Court bars Assin North MP from holding himself as a lawmaker
The Supreme Court has instructed James Gyakie Quayson, the Member of Parliament for Assin North from holding himself as such till a substantive case against him has been ruled on.
The Supreme Court has instructed James Gyakie Quayson, the Member of Parliament for Assin North from holding himself as such till a substantive case against him has been ruled on.
According to the ruling of the court, Mr. Quayson should desist from going to Parliament till further notice.
In a majority decision by the bench, it said the dual citizenship case against the MP should be concluded before he goes to Parliament.
Michael Ankomah-Nimfa, a resident of Assin Bereku in the Central Region, filed a petition at the Cape Coast High Court seeking to annul the declaration of Mr. Quayson as the MP Assin North.
The Cape Coast High Court in the Central Region had declared the 2020 parliamentary election held in the Assin North Constituency as null and void because Mr. Quayson breached the provisions of the constitution with regard to dual citizenship.
Mr. Quayson subsequently appealed the judgment, at the Court of Appeal in Cape Coast.
Quayson described the petitioner's case as "blatant forum shopping" and should not be countenanced by the Supreme Court.
"This court should, with respect, not allow any litigant to act in such bad faith and engage in blatant forum shopping in instituting a new action for the determination of a matter already before another panel of this Court and also pending before other lower courts. The Plaintiff, while urging the panel of the Supreme Court before whom 1st Defendant’s application to quash the decision of the Court of Appeal, Cape Coast, and for the Supreme Court to refer to itself the interpretation of Article 94(2)(a) of the Constitution was pending, rot to make the reference, issues a new writ to be put before another panel of the court," he said.
