Calls To Stop Quayson Trial Is Akin To Freeing Philanthropist Murderer – Dep Attorney General

Deputy Attorney-General Alfred Tuah-Yeboah has said the arguments being made by persons calling for the prosecution of Assin North Member of Parliament James Gyakye Quayson to stop, are fundamentally flawed.

It is recalled that the Omanhene of the Dormaa Traditional Area in the Bono Region and the President of the Bono Regional House of Chiefs, Oseadeoyo Agyeman Badu II, asked President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to instruct the Attorney General to halt the criminal trial of James Gyakye Quayson.

Speaking at the 10th-anniversary lecture of John Evans Atta Mills, in Sunyani, Osagyefo Agyemang Badu who is also a High Court Judge said “As a matter of urgency, I am appealing to the president of the republic that if he has any role to play in that trial should be aborted. The Attorney General should as a matter of urgency file a nolle prosequi to end that particular decision.”

“Honestly, I don’t see the benefits this prosecution will bring Ghanaians. If he is in court, he can’t fulfill his mandate so the president and the Attorney General should do something urgently to end this matter, so we move on as Ghanaians,” he added.

A private legal practitioner Mr Kwame Jantuah also told Attorney General Godfred Dame to file a nolle prosequi in the criminal trial of Gyakye Quayson.

Mr Jantuah said that if Mr Gyakye Quayson is jailed by the court, the people of Assin North will not forgive the New Patriotic Party (NPP)

“I think the Attorney General should file a nolle prosequi in this case, he should discontinue this case. Do you think the people in the constituency will forgive the NPP if Gyakye Quayson is jailed?

“This constituency is nobody’s stronghold, so the NPP should go back to the ground and engage the voters.”

Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Ayikoi Otoo also urged the need for his party, the NPP to consider the future of the Assin North constituency in deciding the way forward.

“There is a need for some negotiation, a broader consultation on the matter for the future of the NPP going to contest elections in the Assin North,”

But speaking on the Ghana Tonight shown TV3 Wednesday, July 19, Mr Alfred Tuah-Yeboah said “That argument is fundamentally flawed. Are we saying that if you are a thief and the people in your community, 99 percent of them support you because you are a philanthropist and you are arrested, because you are a philanthropist and the people are sympathizing with you we should not arrest you?

“If those making that argument will agree with me that such a person should not be prosecuted then I will also agree with them that if you have won an election and you have the mandate of the people, even if you committed an offense prior to that election you must not be prosecuted. Then it means nobody will be prosecuted in this country. Because, you can have a murderer who will be so popular in his community, who is so generous to his people, he may be arrested and people will say this gentleman is someone who has been helping us so leave him.

“If you look at the five charges that we have leveled against Gyakye Quayson, the first two offenses have nothing to do with his election in 2020. The first offense has to do with an offense that he committed in July 2019 when he was applying for his Ghanaian passport where he indicated on the form that he held no dual citizenship. That is an offense and so if we charge you with that and you think you can win an election and because of that offense that you are alleged to have committed some time ago we should just leave you then we don’t know what is happening Ghana.”