Member of Parliament (MP) for Asante-Akim North, Andy Kwame Appiah-Kubi, has said he will file a contempt of court application against MP for Assin North James Gyekye Quayson if the embattled opposition lawmaker sets foot into the Job 600, offices of the lawmakers, following the restrictions placed on him by the Supreme Court.
He said he will be willing to test the law in court hence, dared the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to advise Mr Gyekye Quayson to visit the MPs’ offices.
His comments come after the Director of Legal Affairs of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Abraham Amaliba, said Mr Gyekye Quayson remains MP for Assin North despite the restrictions placed on him by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court by a majority decision of 5-2 on Wednesday, April 13, 2022, ordered Mr Gyekye Quayson to stop holding himself as a lawmaker.
Justices Agnes Dordzie and Nene Amegatcher dissented while Prof. Henrietta Mensah Bonsu, Mariama Owusu, Gertrude Torkornoo, and Emmanuel Yonny Kulendi voted in favour.
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A Cape Coast High Court, presided over by Justice Coram Kwasi Boakye, had earlier ruled that Mr Gyakye Quayson was not eligible to contest the December 7, 2020, Parliamentary Elections because he bore dual citizenship before picking nomination forms from the Electoral Commission, Ghana (EC).
Fresh elections were, as a result, ordered to be conducted while Mr Gyakye Quayson was asked to cease holding himself as MP.
But, until the apex court ruling, the man accused of having Canadian and Ghanaian citizenship was allegedly going to Parliament to join in proceedings.
Speaking on the Key Points on TV3 with host Dzifa Bampoh on Saturday April 16, Mr Amaliba said “Yes, there are some restrains on him that will not make him function as a Member of Parliament but he still remains a Member of Parliament. That is why I have said that there cannot be a by-election until the final determination of the substantive case.”
But responding to him, Mr Appiah-Kubi told Mr Amaliba on the same show that “Advise your client to come to Parliament and I will file a contempt application against him.
“The order says you cannot carry yourself as a Member of Parliament. In that office, Job 600, it is only a Member of Parliament that goes into it. So, I am saying, we need to test the law, advise your client to come and I will file the application of contempt and let the court determine that I am wrong.”
