The trial of Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin North, James Gyakye Quayson, resumed before a High Court in Accra yesterday with the Office of the Attorney General calling its third witness.
The last time the case was called was on November 22, 2023, partly because of the absence of the MP who had been receiving medical attention in Canada, and the trial judge proceeding on leave, having sat during the legal break.
Mr. Quayson is on trial for deceiving the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by making a false statement that he did not have a dual citizenship in order to acquire a Ghanaian passport.
He has been charged with five counts of deceit of public officer, forgery of passport or travel certificate, knowingly making a false statutory statement, perjury and false declaration of office.
The prosecution yesterday called its third witness in the person of Abubakar Sadick Yaya, a staff of the Judicial Service who endorsed one of Mr. Quayson’s nomination forms at the time he was working with the Service in Assin Fosu in the Central Region.
He identified the form which is attached to the case investigator’s witness statement, and would be admitted into evidence later but was yesterday marked as ID2.
Tsatsu Tsikata, counsel for the accused, asked the witness if it was his evidence the MP declared that he was a citizen of Ghana by birth, and Mr. Yaya said, “That is so.”
“And he also, according to you, declared that he did not owe allegiance to any country other than Ghana,” Mr. Tsikata asked. “That is correct, my Lady,” the witness responded.
Meanwhile, Mr. Tsikata yesterday failed to convince the court to recall the prosecution’s first witness, Charles Takyi Mensah, for him to be further cross-examined.
He had filed an application asking the court to set aside its order on November 3, 2023, regarding the proceedings of July 19, 2023, which the court had indicated got mixed up with the proceedings of July 18 as a result of a technical issue.
He had argued that, that was the first time the issue of technical challenges came up in court, and the orders that the court made were made without any representation on behalf of the accused person about the technical issue that were announced in the court.
Mr. Tsikata, therefore, asked that a new proceeding be reconstructed by way of a new cross-examination of the prosecution’s first witness.
The application was opposed by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, who said that the issue had already been raised by defence lawyers and a determination was made by the court, with Mr. Tsikata raising no objection.
She said the lawyer had already fully exercised his right to further cross-examine the witness based on the order made by the court, and the witness has since been discharged.
“The opportunity for further cross-examination of PW1 (witness) which was granted by the court was to prevent a miscarriage of justice to the accused person in the trial of the case,” the DPP added.
Justice Mary Yanzuh, the presiding judge, in the ruling, indicated that the court on November 9, 2023, gave counsel for the accused additional one hour to cross-examine the witness in order to make up for the July 19, 2023 proceeding that was lost, and he did so without any objection.
She said it was late in the day for Mr. Tsikata to raise the matter after taking advantage of further cross-examining the witness.
She added that if counsel is bent on knowing what caused the technical issue leading to the loss of the proceeding, then he should approach the Court Registrar.
The case has been adjourned to February 16, 2024, for the prosecution to call its fourth witness who would be testifying via a video link as he is currently Ghana’s High Commissioner to India.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak
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