Audio By Carbonatix
Lawyers for incarcerated Bawku Central Member of Parliament have served notice they will appeal the MP's conviction.
Mr Adamu Dramani was convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment for each of the three counts of perjury, deceit of a public officer and false declaration of office Tuesday. The sentences are to run concurrently.
He was immediately whisked away to start his prison term.
Lead lawyer for the jailed MP, Mr Yonny Kulendi said there were sufficient grounds to launch an appeal.
Speaking on Joy FM's Super Morning Show Monday, Mr Kulendi said there were a number of contradictions and inconsistencies in the judgment delivered by Justice Charles Quist at the Fast-Track High Court.
For instance, he said even though the judge questioned the integrity of one Stanley Opoku whose services the jailed MP procured to process his application for renouncing his British citizenship, he proceeded to sentence him.
Mr Kulendi, who said he had absolute faith in the qualification of Mr Opoku, said it was curious that the judge would proceed to punish the MP harshly despite his own suggestion that the lawyer who processed Mr Adamu Dramani's renunciation application was a quack.
"The lawyer Stamley Opoku testified in court, he presented his license to practice as an Immigration Consultant and Adviser, it was not impeached...this notwithstanding, the judge in ruling concluded that this lawyer's testimony was of no merit and that the lawyer was... a fake or a quack. Now in mitigation, I said to the judge that 'you are the one who has said that Sakande's lawyer who processed the application and came to testify, is of no merit' - and I have issues with that, I said that clearly - but 'you are the judge, what you say is final; the meaning of what you said is that my client must have been a victim of a quack lawyer...how can you punish this man harshly for being a victim of a quack lawyer? So deal with him leniently," he narrated.
Mr Kulendi said the trial judge had in a previous ruling - when striking out six of the initial nine charges - said that the MP was a Ghanaian citizen with a valid Ghanaian passport, only to turn round later and say Mr Dramani is a Burkina-be.
"We will have our day in court, that is why I said that the judge has spoken it is final for now but it is not over; we will show that this judgment will not stand," he stated.
He said the lawyers were applying for the judge's judgment and "We hope that we can get as quickly as it was delivered because it is a written judgment, immediately we are holding it, we will lay out our appeal."
He gave indications they may apply for bail for the MP pending the hearing of the yet-to-be-filed appeal, insisting there were sufficient grounds for that.
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