The Minority Leader in Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu, says they do not have any plans of shielding the Assin North MP, James Gyakye Quayson, from due legal processes.

Speaking to JoyNews' Joseph Ackah-Blay on Tuesday, he stated that the Minority only wants the right procedures to be followed in handling any legal issues concerning the legislator.

According to him, the Constitution must be upheld at all times, and, therefore, the Police and other relevant stakeholders should be mindful of this in their dealings with Mr Quayson.

"You heard the justices of the Supreme Court themselves at the last hearing state emphatically and strongly that the manner of service was unconstitutional.

"Let me put it out quite clearly that at no point in time has it ever been the intention of the Honorable Gyakye Quayson or the Minority not to be accountable to the law.

"What we have sought to question is the process and procedures allowing us to be accountable to the law and to respect the fidelity of the law. The same Gyakye Quayson was arraigned before a CID investigation panel, so ask yourself, how did that happen?

"They came through properly through the Speaker, and he facilitated that. So if you wanted to serve him, the easy thing to do is to come through the same route of Speaker in accord with the Constitution", he stated.

Mr Gyakye Quayson has been in the news, following in his inability to honour the Police and the Court's invitations regarding some charges levelled against him.

While the Minority in Parliament has accused government of chasing Mr Quayson to reduce their numbers in Parliament, the Attorney General has insisted that the charges against the MP are legitimate without any ulterior motive.

Meanwhile, James Gyakye Quayson has pleaded not guilty to charges including forgery, the deceit of a public officer, knowingly making a false declaration and perjury.

Background

The High Court in July 2021 annulled the Parliamentary elections in the Assin North Constituency after it found Mr Quayson as not eligible to contest the polls. Mr Quayson has since been legally fighting to set this aside, with the matter currently pending at the Court of Appeal.

A resident of the constituency Michael Ankomah Nimfah who initiated the action against the MP at the High Court, has sought the intervention of the Supreme Court to stop the MP from performing Parliamentary duties.

That matter remains pending as court officials have been unable to serve the legislator with the court processes. The Attorney-General’s Office this year filed criminal charges against the legislator. Mr Quayson, who has not been in Court on at least two occasions, was present in Court on Tuesday.

His lawyer, Tsatsu Tsikata, urged the Court not to proceed to take the plea of the MP due to some constitutional issues.

He argued that documents filed by the AG as the basis for the charge sheet raise issues that require interpretation of some constitutional provisions. This, he insisted, is a task reserved for only the Supreme Court.

Deputy Attorney-General, Alfred Tuah Yeboah, told the Court that no issue of interpretation arises. He said the business of the day was to have the accused person respond to the charges in accordance with the law.

Justice Mary Nsenkyire ruled in favour of the Deputy AG and directed that the accused person’s plea be taken.