I would have departed from the Supreme Court ruling if I was a Supreme Court judge on Quayson’s case – Dormaahene

The outspoken High Court judge at Tema, has expressed his disagreement on the ruling by the Supreme Court on the State verse James Gyakye Quayson.

James Gyakye Quayson, after his election as the Member of Parliament for Assin North in the 2020 general elections, faced series of court actions in a case filed by a resident of the constituency Michael Ankomah Nimfah.

The Supreme Court on June 5, 2023, released the official document in which it declared as unconstitutional the election of James Gyakye Quayson as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin North in the Central Region.

This is after a seven-member panel of the apex court ordered Parliament to expunge the name of Mr Quayson from its records.

Presiding Judge, Justice Jones Dotse on Wednesday, May 17, ruled that the Electoral Commission (EC) acted unconstitutionally in allowing him to contest the 2020 parliamentary elections without proof of him renouncing his Canadian Citizenship.

Commenting on the need to scrap off the law that bars dual citizens from contesting to become MPs, the High Court judge recounted the roles these Ghanaian dual citizens play in the growth of the Ghanaian economy and called for that law to be scrapped.

The High Court judge, Osagyefo Oseadeyo Dr Agyeman Badu || was speaking at the Regional commemorative lecture to mark the 10th anniversary of the demise of the former President, John Evans Atta Mills as chairman for the august occasion.

My last take is on the laws of the country; in respect of dual citizenship. If one comes from Ghana, that person, by law, can be a citizen of another country by acquiring citizenship of that country and this is the dual citizenship. The High Court judge continued that that was why other countries allow Ghanaians to acquire their citizenship without any difficulty.

We all know the huge sums of monies these people contribute to our economy in the form of remittances yet these same people are denied the opportunity to serve their country unless they renounce their other citizenship and that is not fair to them.

The outspoken High Court judge admitted that the current provisions in our constitution do not allow dual citizens to contest to become Members of Parliament. ”Yes it is true that our constitution has stated that one cannot hold a dual citizenship to become an MP but without any prejudice to the case pending before the court in Accra, though I am not referring to this case ( the state v Quayson), I think it is about time we scrapped that provisions from our constitution” he stated.

Osagyefo Oseadeyo Agyemang Badu ||, was not happy about the ruling of the Supreme Court on Quayson’s legibility instructing the Parliament of Ghana, to expunged the name of James Gyakye Quayson from its record.

”I would have departed from the Supreme Court ruling: I would have been at the left side of the justices on the ruling of the state v Quayson” he disclosed.