Attorney General welcomes Supreme Court ruling on Gyakye Quayson

The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Dame, is satisfied with the Supreme Court’s ruling restricting James Gyakye Quayson from holding himself as the Member of Parliament for the Assin North Constituency.

Speaking after the ruling, Mr. Dame said “the ruling is an affirmation of law establishing principles by the Supreme Court.”

According to him, “Adamu Daramani Sakande found himself in a similar situation, he was not qualified by the time nominations were opened and was subsequently declared ineligible and for that matter, his seat was taken away. There has to be an even application of the law. If it happened to Daramani Sakande of the NPP, it should happen to a gentleman of the NDC who finds himself in the same situation.”

The Supreme Court today, Wednesday, April 13, 2022, restrained James Gyakye Quayson from holding himself as the Member of Parliament for the Assin North constituency.

Touching on the fate of Assin North constituents, Mr. Dame said he does not think that their rights to representation have been interrupted.

….GODFRED ODAME….

However, a member of James Gyakye Quayson’s legal team, Baba Jamal, says his side disagrees with the latest ruling of the Supreme Court on the Assin North Constituency election petition.

…BABA JAMAL…

The Petitioner, Michael Ankomah Nimfa speaking to the media after the hearing welcomed the ruling by the Apex court.

.…MICHAEL….

 

Assin North residents bares teeth against Supreme Court ruling

Residents of Breku in the Assin North Constituency have expressed their dissatisfaction towards the Supreme Court following their ruling restricting James Gyakye Quayson from holding himself as the Member of Parliament for the Assin North Constituency.

The Supreme Court in a majority 5-2 decision ruled that Assin North MP, James Gyakye Quayson, can no longer perform Parliamentary duties.

Justices Dordzie and Nene Amegatcher held the minority view.

“The restriction remains until the final determination of the substantive matter. We direct that the case hearing be expedited,“ Justice Dotse ruled.

According to the residents, they will vote for him massively should incase there will be a by-elections.

Speaking to the media, they said, Mr. Gyakye is working hard to develop their community but this decision clearly shows that, residents of Assin North constituency do not want improvement in their area.

One questioned if those calling for his removal helped him financially to travel abroad but is determined to remove him from the office.

….RESIDENTS…..

 

 

It’s yet another sad day in our democracy – Amaliba reacts to Supreme Court ruling

The Director of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) legal team, Abraham Amaliba, has described the ruling by the Supreme Court on the matter of an application for an injunction to stop James Gyakye Quayson from holding himself as a Member of Parliament for Assin North, as another sad day in Ghana’s democracy.

He explained that the ruling effectively takes away representation from the people of Assin North, a situation that doesn’t complement the tenets of a democratic environment.

“Today is yet another sad day for our democracy. This ruling effectively denies the people of Assin North constituency a representation in parliament. And I say it is yet another sad day because don’t forget that we have the people of SALL, who are not represented in parliament and so if you have a democracy where a section of your people are not represented in parliament, that cannot be a democracy,” he said.

But Member of Parliament for Adansi Asokwa, Hon. KT Hammond reacting to this said, the law has its own concept of fairness and its own concept of logic.

According to him, though it is sad to witness his fellow MP to go through such situation but the law should take its own cause.

He added that, as far as they are concern they are done with Mr. James Gyakye Quayson hence the need for him to stay aside according to the Supreme Court ruling.

.…KT HAMMOND FIRST….

Hon. KT Hammond again said, the ruling on Mr. James Gyakye doesn’t tantamount to by-elections at this time.

….KT HAMMOND SECOND….

 

You have no right to lock up our Office- NPP

Executive Members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Ashanti has expressed their dissatisfaction towards the landlady who locked up their Office at Krofrom.

It will be recalled that the landlady and some family members stormed the party office some months ago to lock it up over failure of the party to pay its rent.

The landlady during the incident, said the NPP Ashanti branch headed by Mr Antwi Boasiako well known as Chairman Wontumi had refused to pay her 3 years rent arrears of an amount of Ghc36,000.

The case forced Wontumi, the Ashanti NPP Regional Chairman to tour various radio and TV stations to debunk the landlady’s claim.  He said the party had paid all rent arrears and was going to sue the woman for defamation.

A visit to the party office today can confirm that the office has been locked for some weeks now.

The party’s daily activities at the office have since been halted due to the closure.

However, First Vice Chairman of the NPP in the Ashanti region, Mr. Kwabena Nsenkyire speaking to the media said, the landowner does not have the right to lockup the Office despite them owning her.

According to him, the property owner should have use the proper channel to collect their property rather than locking it forcibly.

He added that, they will go to the court should in case she has no legal backing to lock the office.

He noted that, she/ he don’t have the right if they have defaulted.

.…MR. NSENKYIRE….

 

 

 

Electricity, water tariffs to go up

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has confirmed that there will be an upward review of utility tariffs in the coming weeks.

This follows proposals it received from the public utility companies for the upward adjustment, which they say is due to their rising operational costs.

At least the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) and the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) have asked the PURC to review tariffs upwards, citing an exponential increase in production cost.

Speaking in an interview with the media, the PURC Commissioner, Ishmael Agyekumhene, said the Commission is commencing stakeholders’ engagements to finalise the review.

According to him, they are now looking at the proposals though it is true that in 2019, there should have been a major tariff review that couldn’t take place because the Commission wasn’t impressed.

He added that, they are looking at it from next week or a couple of weeks [ahead]there’d be stakeholder engagements as the PURC always does, and then ultimately, the tariff will be announced.

In September 2021, the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and other consumer stakeholders kicked against the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), NEDCo and the Volta River Authority (VRA) over a possible increase in electricity tariff.

The IPPs had asked for a reduction in the electricity bills.

They argued that the 16% and 24% of power loss to technical and commercial losses by ECG was no fault of theirs.

Also, the Private Enterprise Federation had earlier kicked against the increase in electricity tariff, saying it would cripple many businesses amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

….PURC….

PNC welcomes court ruling directing Apasera, Dani Baah to return to party for redress

The People’s National Convention (PNC) has welcomed the court ruling directing the ousted leader and chairman, David Apasera and Moses Dani Baah to come back to the party to seek redress.

General Secretary for the party, Janet Nabla speaking to the media in a press conference said, it would be recalled that on 7th September, 2021, the PNC removed David Apasera and Moses Dani Baah as Leader and Chairman respectively on grounds of misconduct and financial misappropriation and the duo took the matter to court to seek for nullification of their removal.

According to her, the party in its defense moved the court to direct the duo to use and exhaust the PNC’s internal dispute resolution to seek for their reinstatement.

On Monday the 11th of April, 2022 the court upheld the motion and subsequently directed the plaintiff to go back to the Party to seek redress.

She added that, they welcomes this directive from the court and has assured the plaintiffs that they will be given a fair hearing should they follow the court order and apply for reconsideration of their removal from office which was in pursuant to Article 49(a)4 of the PNC constitution.

She called on the rank and file of the Party to accept the court order, bury their differences and together continue to give their full support to the current leadership, led by Governor Bala Saliu Maikankan - the Acting Chairman and Leader among others.

.…JANET NABLA….