A Legal and Constitutional Committee Member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gary Nimako Marfo, has said that all charges levelled against the Assin North MP and other NDC lawmakers will be fully pursued to their conclusions.

The NPP has been in court to, among other things, seek an order to restrain James Gyakye Quayson from performing Parliamentary duties.

There is another criminal case in which Mr Quayson is accused of forgery and perjury.

In an interview on Newsfile on Saturday, February 12, Gary Nimako said the party will employ all available judicial processes to stop the MP from attending Parliament’s business as soon as possible.

“You agree with me that a criminal matter and a civil matter can run side by side. There is no law or rule of practice that says that a criminal matter and a civil matter cannot run side by side. Therefore, we cannot wait; the law permits what we do.

“It [the decision to prosecute] is political and legal because the Article 88 [of the Constitution] makes it very clear that it is at the behest of the Attorney General to decide to prosecute or not prosecute so as it stands now, the criminal matter and the civil matter are going to be run side by side.”.

“Justice delayed is justice denied. This matter ought to be done expeditiously so that one way or the other, we’d all know whether Mr Quayson, at the time of filing his nominations in October, was indeed right to have done so or wrong to have done so. Both the criminal matter and the civil ought to be dealt with expeditiously,” Gary Marfo said.

In addition to the Assin North MP’s case, the NPP challenges the other four NDC Parliamentary seats. Notable among them are the Techiman South and Jomoro constituencies.

There have been claims that the NPP is taking on these legal actions in the quest to reduce the representation of the Minority Caucus in Parliament to enable the Majority to pass the E-levy Bill.

In the midst of these, Senior Vice President of IMANI-Africa, Kofi Bentil, has cautioned the Courts to be mindful that their actions do not play to a political party’s advantage.

“In this case, there is a political issue playing out, and the effect of what is done in the court, rightly so, will have a clear political effect, so the court must be mindful of that.

“The Courts must do justice but must be minded that there are other consequences of the justice that they do. Once they are aware of the consequences, the wise men in the judges’ robe know exactly what to do. They can choose to act in ways that help our union instead of breaking it up,” he said on Newsfile.

But Gary Marfo disagrees, arguing that the case's outcome - whether it favours one party over the other or otherwise - should not cause the case to delay unusually.

“We must be very clear in our minds as a country that the laws that are made in this country are not for the fun of it, but the laws are meant to guide our actions and inactions.”

“If somebody commits a crime, would we say that because for some reason, if the courts decide one way or the other it will give one party an advantage or otherwise, the court should not decide, they should delay the case ad infinitum?” he asked.

Meanwhile, the embattled MP has said he is an innocent man, therefore, has no cause to be perturbed over the election petition case involving him and Michael Ankomah Nimfah, who is the petitioner.

“I am in a very high spirit. An innocent person has nothing to fear. That is all I can say. All I can say to you at this time is that this matter is in court.”

“I believe and trust in the judicial system because that is the way for people to measure their innocence,” he told the media on Friday, February 11.