A Member of the General Legal Council and a former President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Sam Okudzeto, has condemned the Dormaahene for his comments on the ongoing trial of Assin North MP-elect, James Gyakye Quayson.
According to him, Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu II, who’s also a sitting High Court Judge, was wrong to have publicly called for the criminal trial to be dropped.
Speaking on Top Story on Joy FM, he said “it is wrong, it is repugnant, it is senseless for a sitting high court judge to stand on a public platform and make an utterance of that nature. This is my view,” he said.
The Dormaahene, Osagyefo Badu II, who’s also the President of the Bono Regional House of Chiefs, has appealed to President Akufo-Addo to intervene and stop the prosecution of the MP-elect, James Gyakye Quayson.
Speaking at the 10th-anniversary lecture of John Evans Atta Mills, in Sunyani, Osagyefo Agyemang Badu who’s known in judicial practice as His Lordship, Justice Daniel Mensah said pursuing the case will not contribute to the country’s development in anyway.
“As a matter of urgency, I am appealing to the President of the Republic, Attorney General if he has any role to play, that the trial should be aborted,” he appealed.
He, thus, called on the Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame “to as a matter of urgency file a nolle prosequi to end that particular decision.”
Again, he expressed worry about the Supreme Court’s ruling which resulted in Mr Quayson being removed from parliament.
The Dormaahene made it clear that he would have taken a divergent stance if he had been part of the panel deciding on the matter.
On the back of this, the former President of the Ghana Bar Association, Mr Okudzeto, is demanding the immediate dismissal of the judge.
“If I was sitting in that disciplinary committee of the judicial council, I would have asked him to resign or asked him to be sacked as a judge. That’s what I would have done,” he said.
He advised that citizens take up the matter and complain to the appropriate body to keep people in authority in check.
The Assin North MP-elect, James Gyakye Quayson is being tried for forgery and perjury after he was charged by the Attorney-General’s Office.
He is also accused of deceiving a public officer and knowingly making a false declaration when he filed nominations to contest in the 2020 election when he had not renounced his Canadian citizenship.
However, he has filed a motion on notice at the High Court for a stay of proceedings, pending an appeal.
Meanwhile, he’s expected to be sworn into office again on Tuesday, July 4, after winning the Assin North bye-election.