Is James Gyakye Quayson a Reincarnated K.A. Gbedema or he is merely facing retaliation for Adamu Sakande? – Episode 2

Introduction
In Episode -1 of this piece, I discussed meaningfully, how the Progress Party in 1969 ousted K.A. Gbedema from the National Assembly (parliamentary) seat for Keta Constituency through a legal suit by Awoonor Williams, the PP’s candidate who was defeated by Gbedema in the 1969 parliamentary elections at Keta. In this episode (Episode -2), I have discussed how the NDC ousted the NPP’s Adamu Sakande from the Bawku Central seat in 2012 with another legal suit whereas the NPP also removed Gyakye Quayson from the Assin North seat using various legal suits that traveled from the Cape Coast High Court to the Supreme Court. Surprisingly, Gyakye Quayson had been re-elected in a by-election after he had been ousted form the seat. Perhaps the most important occurrence to engage discerning minds is that the political party in power won each of these three cases involving Gbedema, Sakande and Quayson. Is this attributable to inarticulate major premise of judicial decision making?

The Political Fate of Adamu Sakande?
Adamu Dramani Sakande was duly sworn in as the MP for Bawku Central on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2008 general elections because he won majority (53.4%) of the 37,719 valid votes in the parliamentary elections at Bawku. Just like Gbedema in 1969, Adamu Sakande was duly sworn in as the MP, not for Keta but for Bawku Central.

Much later, a female cattle farmer of Bawku, Sumaila Bielbiel (allegedly an affiliate or member of the NDC) sued the NPP’s Adamu Sakande on the grounds that Sakande failed to denounce his British citizenship prior to contesting and winning the parliamentary elections in Bawku Central and that this act breached Articles 97 (1) and 94 (2) (a) of the 1992 (Fourth Republican) Constitution . Sumaila equally accused Sakande of voting in the 2008 elections even though he did not register with the Electoral Commission to vote that year.

Whereas Sumaila’s Counsel in the case was Dr. Raymond Atuguba, Adamu Sakande was represented by Lawyer Yonny Kulendi (as he then was). Eventually, Adamu Sakande was found guilty of the offenses of perjury and forgery in July 2012. He was accordingly convicted and jailed for the two offenses concurrently. One may thus assert that the NDC used Sumaila Bielbiel to stop Adamu Sakande from being the Bawku Central MP just as the PP used Awoonor Williams in 1969 to oust Gbedema from Keta seat in the National Assembly.

Is James Gyakye Quayson a politically reincarnated K.A. Gbedema or he faces retaliation for Adamu Sakande?

Fast forward in the December 2020 general elections, James Gyakye Quayson (from Assin Bereku) was elected as the MP for the Assin North Constituency on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress and just like Gbedema and Sakande in 1969 and 2008 respectively, Gyakye Quayson’s swearing in took place on the floor of Parliament in the midnight of January 2021.

Prior to the 2020 elections, a resident of Assin Bereku, Michael Ankomah-Nimfah (allegedly a member of the ruling NPP) filed a petition at the Cape Coast High Court.questioning the eligibility of Quayson's contest for the Assin North seat due to Quayson’s holding of dual citizenship of Canada and Ghana at the time he filed his papers at the Electoral Commission to contest in the 2020 elections when nominations were closed on 9th October 2020.

Just like the 2012 Adamu Sakande case, the same Articles 97 (1) and 94 (2) (a) of the 1992 (Fourth Republican) Constitution were invoked in the Gyakye Quayson case. The court upheld Ankomah -Nimfah’s petition, declaring Gyakye Quayson’s election null and void. Mr. Quayson then challenged the decision of the High Court at the Appeals Court, but his application was dismissed.

Subsequently, Ankomah -Nimfah who filed an election petition against Mr. Quayson at the High Court had prayed the Supreme Court that the Court should allow the Cape Coast High Court judgement to take effect as well as prevent further breach of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana by restraining Gyakye Quayson as member of parliament (MP) for Assin North since he continued to sit in parliament in that capacity even though this was challenged within the legislative house itself.

On 13^th April 2022, the Supreme Court by a 5-2 majority decision ruled that Quayson should stop holding himself as MP for Assin North, but he filed an application for the Supreme Court to review its own decision.

On May 17, 2023, the seven-member coram led by JSC Jones Dotse (as he then was) ruled unanimously that the EC acted unconstitutionally by accepting the nomination of Mr. Quayson without proof of citizenship renunciation before contesting in the 2020 parliamentary elections. The apex court outlined four reasons for arriving at this decision in the case against Mr. James Gyakye Quayson which did not sit well with the minority, National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the defendant. Mr. Quayson expressed his disappointment at the Court's decision. Lawyer Tsatsu Tsikata represented Quayson while Mr. Ankomah -Nimfah’s lawyer in the case was Frank Davies.

In compliance with the SC judgement in the case of Michael Ankomah Nimfah vrs James Gyakye Quayson, the Clerk of Parliament notified the Electoral Commission in writing that by the Judgement of the Supreme Court dated 17^th May 2023 vide Writ No. J1/11/2022, the Assin North Seat was declared vacant, so the EC was to take appropriate consequential action as required by law.

Coincidentally, Lawyer Yonny Kulendi (as he then was) who represented the NPP’s Adamu Sakande in 2008 had become one of the 7 Supreme Court Justices who ruled on the Ankomah Nimfah vrs James Gyakye Quayson case.

Accordingly, the EC declared the Assin North seat vacant and slated Tuesday, June 27, 2023, for a by-election. Gyakye Quayson who had already denounced his Canadian citizenship had filed his nomination for the by-election which was fiercely contested by him, the NPP’s Charles Opoku and Bernice Enyonam Sefenu of the Kofi Akpaloo-led Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG). Even though various opinion poll results favoured the NPP’s Charles Opoku prior to the contest, the NDC’s embattled Gyakye Quayson surprisingly emerged victorious, winning 57.56% of the valid votes followed by Charles Opoku (NPP) and Bernice Enyonam Sefenu (LPG) with 42.15% and 0.29% respectively.

However, even after winning the June 27, 2023, Assin North by-election, James Gyakye Quayson’s politico-legal woes are not over yet. This is because the Attorney-General in February 2022 accused Gyakye Quayson of deceiving public officers to acquire state documents. Specifically, Quayson has been charged with various counts such as deceit of public officers, forgery of passport and knowingly making a false statutory declaration, perjury. So that I do not end up breaching the sub judice rule and committing contempt of court, I have restrained myself from commenting on the pending criminal case against the Assin North MP-elect, James Gyakye Quayson.

Conclusion
It is trite knowledge that the Awoonor vs. Gbedema case of 1969, Bielbiel vs. Adamu Sakande case of 2012 and the 2023 Ankomah -Nimfah vs. Gyakye Quayson case are all political cases in judicial clothes relating to the occupancy of the parliamentary seats for Keta, Bawku Central and Assin North Constituencies respectively. It is also interesting to note that in each of the three cases, the party in power (Progress Party in 1969; National Democratic Congress in 2012 and the New Patriotic Party in 2023) had won the cases against the opposition parties, NAL, NPP and NDC respectively.

Is it right under the three discussed cases to assert that the Courts’ decisions in such political cases suffered from the famous inarticulate major premise dictum whereby the decisions were more based on inarticulate factors such as political influence rather than any articulate major premise or pure and convincing legal arguments? To draw the curtain, it is worth asking again, did the NDC (an acclaimed Nkrumahist party) use Adamu Sakande to atone for the PP’s treatment of Gbedema in 1969 and is the NPP retaliating the NDC for Sakande or the NPP is just repeating its deeds to Gbedema in 1969 when the NPP tradition was called PP and Gyakye Quayson happens to be caught in the quagmire? ~Asante Sana ~

Philip Afeti Korto
Hospital Administrator
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