Attorney-General Godfred Dame has said that he will soon issue an official statement on the calls being made to discontinue the criminal trial of Assin North Member of Parliament-elect James Gyakye Quayson and similar cases.
In his view, the calls are unhealthy for Ghana’s democratic dispensation and hence must not be countenanced.
“I will come out with a proper statement on the matter and it will be in respect of all comments generally which have the tendency to subvert the administration of justice, I think that it is very unhealthy for our democratic dispensation and we must not countenance same,” he told a journalist in Accra on Monday, July 3.
Several people have asked him to stop the case against Mr Gyakye Quayson.
For instance, 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, while speaking at the 10th-anniversary lecture of John Evans Atta Mills, in Sunyani, 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,” Osagyefo Agyemang Badu who is also a High Court Judge added.
Earlier, a private legal practitioner Mr Kwame Jantuah also told Mr 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.”
Meanwhile, Mr Gyakye Quayson is appealing a High Court ruling to have his criminal case heard on a daily basis.
The Court presided over by Justice Mary Yanzuh on Friday, June 23 dismissed an application by lawyers of Mr Gyakye Quayson to have a hearing on the case varied.
The ruling implied the MP would from Tuesday, July 4, when the hearing begins, appear in court daily irrespective of his status as a lawmaker.
He also cites the ruling as a breach of Mr Gyakye Quayson’s right to a fair trial.