By Barbara Kumah
Attorney-General Godfred Yeboah Dame has told an Accra High Court that the application filed by lead counsel for James Gyakye Quayson, Tsatsu Tsikata, seeking to stay proceedings pending an appeal to the Court of Appeal “is grounded on irrelevant matters, distortion of facts, and confusion”.
Arguing in opposition to the application by Mr. Tsikata, the Attorney-General stated that the application does not show any exceptional circumstances warranting a stay of proceedings in a criminal trial and that, same was merely designed to frustrate the criminal trial of the Assin North Member of Parliament.
Tsatsu Tsikata’s case
Mr Tsikata wants the High Court to stay proceedings of the trial because of an appeal he has filed at the Court of Appeal challenging the decision of the High Court on June 23, 2023, to conduct a day-to-day trial. In dismissing an earlier motion on June 23, 2023, the trial judge, Mary Yanzuh, ruled that a day-to-day trial was consistent with several provisions of the law, as had been argued by the Attorney General, Godfred Dame.
However, Mr. Tsikata stated in his submissions that justice will not be properly dispensed with if the matter is scheduled for day-to-day trial.
Attorney-General’s submissions
Explaining what he meant by the point that Mr. Tsikata’s application was “grounded on irrelevant matters and confusion”, Mr. Dame indicated that Mr. Tsikata had originally applied for a review or variation of the court’s order fixing the proceedings for day-to-day trial from June 20–23, 2023, as being an infringement of his client’s right to participate in an election. It was the ruling on this application by Justice Yanzuh on June 23, 2023, which Tsikata was aggrieved by and had appealed against. By the time Mr. Tsikata filed his appeal on June 27, 2023, and by the time he filed his motion for stay of proceedings, the material time – 20th to 23rd June, 2023 which Mr. Tsikata was concerned about, had long elapsed. Mr Dame thus, submitted that clearly, in light of this, Tsatsu Tsikata’s application was incompetent, unnecessary, and otiose. “My lady, this incompetent application, grounded on confused and distorted facts, can only be designed to waste the court’s time and nothing else.”
Alleged prejudice by Mr. Dame
Mr. Dame addressed the allegation often made against him by Mr. Tsikata and other supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that he had prejudiced the hearing of the criminal case against Mr. Gyakye-Quayson through the comments he made in reaction to the ruling of the Supreme Court restraining Mr. Quayson from acting as a Member of Parliament.
The Attorney-General indicated that he had never, on any platform, made any comment about the ongoing criminal trial against Mr. Quayson. “I have never commented on the criminal trial of Gyaakye Quayson anywhere. Never. All my comments were related to the constitutional case which the Supreme Court was seised of. When I stated that Gyakye-Quayson must suffer the same fate as Adamu Dramani Sakande, it was in reaction to the Supreme Court ruling that he be restrained from going to Parliament, which is what happened to Adamu Dramani Sakande. The media house, myjoyonline, reported this fact clearly in their publication, which Mr. Tsikata relies on as an exhibit. So, why is he once again distorting the facts and misleading the court?” The A-G asked.
President Akufo-Addo’s alleged prejudice in the trial
The Attorney-General further debunked the allegation by Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata that President Akufo-Addo had prejudiced the criminal trial of Mr. Gyakye-Quayson by his remarks at the last campaign rally of the NPP in the run-up to the Assin North by-election.
Mr. Dame strongly rejected this assertion and stated that once again, Mr. Tsikata’s claim was based on a distortion of the facts. Mr. Dame invited the court to take a critical look at the tape that Mr. Tsikata had played in court, and the court would notice that Mr. Tsikata had played only a few seconds of the President’s speech at the Assin North rally and not the full record.
The Attorney-General stated that the full record of the President’s speech will reveal that the President had only asked the people of Assin North why they “would want to vote for someone who was bedeviled by litigation—today, High Court, tomorrow, Court of Appeal, tomorrow, Supreme Court. Why do you want to vote for one who is bedeviled by litigation? Gyakye-Quayson says that even if he is in jail, the people of Assin North will vote for him, but is that what you want? One who will serve from jail?”
The Attorney-General stated that under no circumstance can anyone who listened to the President’s speech allege that the President prejudiced the hearing of the criminal trial. Mr Tsatsu Tsikata knew this, and that is why he deliberately and mischievously played only a few seconds of the recording of the President’s speech and not the full speech, Mr Dame submitted to the court.
Tsikata and Dame in ‘War of words’
Mr. Tsikata, in his affidavit in support of his motion, had alleged that what Mr. Quayson was going through was similar to what he, Mr. Tsikata, had experienced in 2008, which led to his conviction by an Accra High Court. He further submitted that the current Attorney-General’s conduct was similar to that of President Nana Akufo-Addo when he was the Attorney General of Ghana from 2001 to 2003.
Tsatsu Tsikata claimed that his observations about the A-G’s alleged comments, which have been dismissed by the High Court as “not relevant,” were similar to his own travails with the law. Mr. Tsikata then openly cautioned that the Attorney General will be prosecuted in the same measure if power changes hands at the polls during the 2024 elections.
Mr Dame immediately replied, “I sympathise with your experience when you found yourself in jail in 2008, but I can assure you that I will not conduct myself in a way that will land me in prison, like you did.” Mr. Dame asked the court, of what relevance is Mr. Tsikata’s experience in 2008, 15 years before 2023, to this trial currently pending before the court? “It is again an attempt to divert the court’s attention to irrelevant matters and must not be tolerated.”
The trial judge, Mary Yanzu, will rule on the application for stay of proceedings on Tuesday, July 11, 2023.
Background facts
James Gyakye Quayson is standing trial for perjury, forgery, and other counts of criminal nature pertaining to his Ghanaian passport and eligibility to contest in the 2020 general elections. The Republic’s case against Hon. Gyakye Quayson is that he lied on his passport application form filled out on July 26, that he was not a dual citizen and that he held only Ghanaian citizenship. This was in spite of the fact that he was yet to renounce his Canadian citizenship issued on 30th October 2016. Further to this infraction against the law, Hon. Quayson also submitted forms to the electoral commission declaring that he only held allegiance to the Republic of Ghana. This was despite knowing that the application to renounce his Canadian citizenship had not yet been granted by the time he filed his eligibility papers with the electoral commission on or between 5th and 9th October 2020.
Richard Takyi, a resident of Yamoransa in the Central Region, prayed to the High Court in Cape Coast to cancel Hon. Gyakye Quayson’s electoral victory because he was not eligible to have taken part in the elections. The matter travelled all the way to the Supreme Court, which upheld the ruling of the Cape Coast Court. The apex court of the land subsequently ordered Gyakye Quayson to be removed from Parliament, occasioning a by-election.
The National Democratic Congress, in spite of the criminal prosecution he faces, repeated him as the candidate for the election, which he won. He has since been re-sworn in as the Member of Parliament for Assin North while his trial proceeds.
