Accra, Feb. 3, GNA- The State has charged James Gyakye Quayson, Member of Parliament for Assin North, with deceit of public officer and forgery of passport or travel certificate.
He has been additionally charged for knowingly making false statutory declaration, perjury and false declaration for office.
This is after an injunction application was brought against the MP at the Supreme Court to restrain him from holding himself as a legislator.
When the matter was called at the High Court, a State Attorney informed the court that a letter had been written to the Police directing them to serve the accused with the charge sheet.
According to the State Attorney, efforts to reach the accused and serve him had been unsuccessful.
The Attorney, therefore, prayed the Court for an order for the issuance of a hearing notice to compel the accused to appear in court.
The Court, presided over by Mrs Justice Mary Maame E. Nsenkyire, ordered copies of the charge sheet and facts sheets to be served on the accused.
The matter has been adjourned to February 9.
The case of the State is that the accused person, James Gyakye Quayson, is the Member of Parliament for Assin North Constituency.
The complainant, Richard Takyi-Mensah, is a teacher and a resident of Yamoransa in the Central Region of Ghana.
According to the State, on July 26, 2019, the accused person signed an application form for a Republic of Ghana passport.
On the application form, he indicated that he was a Ghanaian and did not have a dual citizenship.
It said the accused at the time held a Canadian citizenship issued on October 30, 2016 but failed to declare same on the application form.
The State said the passport application of the accused person was vetted on the 29th of July 2019.
It said based on that false information together with 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.
Again, 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 State said the accused person picked up nomination forms to contest for the position of Member of Parliament for Assin North Constituency.
It said the accused person at the time was a Ghanaian and a Canadian citizen, making him a dual citizenship holder.
The State said he was, therefore, disqualified under Article 94(2)(a) of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana to be a Member of Parliament.
It said 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 October 6, 2020 before the District Court Registrar at Assin Fosu stating that he did not owe allegiance to any country other than Ghana.
The State said the accused person further went ahead to file his nomination forms on 8th October 2020 with the false information in the statutory declaration.
It said based on that false information together with other information provided by the accused person in the nomination forms, his nomination was accepted by the Electoral Commission.
It said the accused person contested for the position and subsequently won the seat.
It said 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.
The State said on January 14, this year, the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department received a petition dated 11th January 2021 from the complainant in, which the complainant reported the actions of the accused, leading to investigations into the matter.
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.
GNA