The National Communication Officer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Sammy Gyamfi has indicated, the ruling of the High Court in Cape Coast which has ejected the Assin North law maker from parliament was full of plagiarized contents from Wikipedia. Earlier on Wednesday, July 28, 2021 the Cape Coast High Court declared the 2020 parliamentary election held in the Assin North Constituency worthless and annulled hence ejecting the Member of Parliament James Gyakye Quayson for owing allegiance to Canada.
According to the trial judge, Justice Boakye, the National Democratic Congress 2020 parliamentary candidate for the constituency, James Gyake Quayson breached the provisions of the constitution concerning dual citizenship and ordered for a fresh election to be conducted in the constituency.
Sammy Gyamfi speaking on Joy FM, on Monday, August 2, stated “the trial judge determined the case in accordance with the Canadian law. And if you look at section 1 subsection 2 of the evidence Act of Ghana, issues of foreign law are questions of facts which the Supreme Court has said can only be determined at the trial stage through the abduction of evidence; in this case, there was no evidence before the court.
“He [the trial judge] resorted or if you like plagiarized some writings from Wikipedia and sort to determine issues of foreign law on his own as a judge when he has no power under the Evidence Act in this country; he didn’t even allow the matter to go on trial, abduction of evidence or expert witness to be called so clearly, he did not determine the issue accordance with the law, he reiterated.
He added, “the decision of the judge to annul the election on grounds that the NDC legislator was not qualified at the time of nomination “violates section 20(1)(d) of PNDC Law 284 which says that a High Court can only annul a parliamentary election if the candidate was not qualified as of the time of the election no nomination, so the judge got that wrong.”
Source: www.ghbase.com
