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Discontinue Gyakye Quayson’s trial… Dormaahene tells Attorney General
Chief of the Dormaa Traditional Area, Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu II has expressed worry over the Supreme Court’s ruling which resulted in James Gyakye Quayson being removed as a Member of Parliament.
The chief who doubles as President of the Bono Regional House of Chiefs disagreed with the initial ruling made by the Supreme Court, which declared Gyakye Quayson’s parliamentary position invalid due to his dual citizenship status.
“He [Gyakye Quayson] said he was not willing to stay in Canada, he dropped his citizenship and returned to Ghana to help. When he got here, he had a bit of a challenge and the Supreme Court ruled that his mandate as an MP should be nullified.”
He made these comments during the Professor John Evans Atta Mills Commemorative Lecture in Sunyani on Saturday, July 1.
Addressing the gathering, 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.
“Some of us were not happy with that. If I were on the Supreme Court, I would have gone left and not the right,” he said.
His comment comes after James Gyakye Quayson won the Parliamentary polls despite being ousted from Parliament by the Court and his name expunged from the House’s records.
Mr Quayson is facing charges of forgery and perjury in relation to certain alleged offences in the lead-up to the 2020 Assin North parliamentary election.
He pleaded not guilty to five counts of forgery of passport or travel certificate, knowingly making a false statutory declaration, perjury and false declaration for office.
But Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu II is urging the Attorney-General to drop the criminal charges against James Gyakye Quayson, the Member of Parliament-elect for Assin North.
“When the man had his name expunged from Parliament, didn’t they go to vote again? Was he voted for or not? Didn’t he get an overwhelming majority, 57.56%, is that a mere victory?”
“As a matter of urgency, I [Dormaahene] am appealing to the President of the Republic [Akufo-Addo], if he has any role to play, that trial should be aborted, and the Attorney-General should as a matter of urgency file a nolle Prosequi to end that particular decision and abort the criminal case against Mr Quayson”, the Dormaahene added.
Source: Myjoyonline.com
The Member of Parliament for Nsawam Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh Dompreh, has expressed concern over delays in the release of the District Assemblies Common Fund, warning that the situation is stalling development across the country.
On his facebook page, he described as a matter of urgent national importance, the Minority Chief Whip pointed to what he sees as a growing crisis of unpaid contractors, abandoned projects, and halted infrastructure works in many districts.
He noted that several communities are grappling with half completed schools, unfinished health facilities, abandoned markets, deteriorating roads, and stalled sanitation projects.
According to him, many contractors who have executed projects for district assemblies have not been paid, forcing some construction firms to demobilise from sites while workers lose their jobs.
He stressed that the District Assemblies Common Fund is not a discretionary allocation but a constitutional requirement under Article 252 of the 1992 Constitution, intended to support development at the local level.
In his view, years of delayed releases and accumulated arrears have weakened district development financing and disrupted projects meant to improve living conditions in communities.
He further argued that some payments made in recent years were largely the settlement of old debts rather than funding for new or ongoing projects, a situation he believes has affected contractor confidence and local economic activity.
He described the issue as more than a budgetary challenge, characterising it as a development emergency and a governance concern.
He therefore urged the appropriate authorities to pay outstanding DACF arrears, settle contractors who have completed their work, and ensure that transfers to districts are automatic and predictable.
He maintained that decentralisation can only succeed when district assemblies receive adequate and timely funding to carry out development projects.
He emphasised that stalled projects directly affect ordinary citizens, since they rely on such infrastructure for education, healthcare, transportation, sanitation, and economic activities.
He called for renewed attention to grassroots development, insisting that national progress should not be concentrated only in major cities but extended to all communities.
By: Jacob Aggrey
Richard Appiah, the footballer who killed two children and stored part of their bodies in a fridge at Abesim in the Bono Region in 2021 has been handed a lifetime sentence.
This was after a five member panel of judges at the Accra High Court returned a verdict of guilty against the convict.
Appiah, 32, also a draughtsman would spend the rest of his life in prison after he was convicted of murder.
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BY MALIK SULLEMANA
