The decision by the Attorney General’s department to prosecute the Member of Parliament for Assin North, James Gyakye Quayson is both political and legal.
This is according to a member of NPP’s Legal team, Gary Nimako Marfo who adds that all charges levelled against the embattled MP and other NDC lawmakers will be fully pursued to their conclusions.
It will be recalled that the Cape Coast High Court in July 2021 annulled the Assin North Parliamentary elections saying Mr Quayson was not eligible to contest the polls.
Mr Quayson has since been legally fighting to set this aside with the matter currently pending at the Court of Appeal.
A resident of the constituency Michael Ankomah Nimfah who initiated the action against the MP at the High Court has sought the intervention of the Supreme Court to stop the MP from performing Parliamentary duties. That matter remains pending as court officials have been unable to serve the MP with the court processes amidst allegations that a court bailiff was assaulted by the MP’s bodyguard.
The Attorney General’s office has also filed criminal charges against the MP including forgery, perjury and also deceiving a public officer and knowingly making a false declaration.
Contributing to a panel discussion on Accra-based Joy TV/Joy FM on Saturday, Mr Nimako Marfo said the party will employ all legal means necessary to injunct the MP from attending to parliamentary business as soon as possible.
“You agree with me that a criminal matter and a civil matter can run side by side. There is no law or rule of practice that says that a criminal matter and a civil matter cannot run side by side. Therefore, we cannot wait; the law permits what we do.”
“It [the decision to prosecute] is political and legal because the Article 88 [of the Constitution] makes it very clear that it is at the behest of the Attorney General to decide to prosecute or not prosecute so as it stands now, the criminal matter and the civil matter are going to be run side by side.”.
“Justice delayed is justice denied. This matter ought to be done expeditiously so that one way or the other, we’d all know whether Mr Quayson, at the time of filing his nominations in October, was indeed right to have done so or wrong to have done so. Both the criminal matter and the civil ought to be dealt with expeditiously,” Gary Marfo said.
“We must be very clear in our minds as a country that the laws that are made in this country are not for the fun of it, but the laws are meant to guide our actions and inactions.”
“If somebody commits a crime, would we say that because for some reason, if the courts decide one way or the other it will give one party an advantage or otherwise, the court should not decide, they should delay the case ad infinitum?” he quizzed.