By Felix Engsalige
Nyaaba
Mr.
Sumaila Biebielle, the cattle dealer who has dragged the Bawku Central sitting
Member of Parliament, Hon. Adamu Dramani Sakande to the Supreme Court for
allegedly holding multiple nationality, yesterday dazzled the defence when he
was being cross examined in the constitutional
interpretation case.
Mr.
Biebielle who has been defending the case without a legal counsel since the boycott
of his lawyer, Dr. Raymond Atuguba by the Association of Magistrates and Judges
of Ghana (AMJG) yesterday told the nine panel judges hearing the case that,
although he is not a lawyer, the little knowledge he had gathered after reading
the country 1992 constitution has given him an insight of illegality when section
or Articles of the constitution are being violated.
According
to the plaintiff, who was being cross examined by Mr. Egbert Faibille, a member
of the defence team, he has never been to the Homes office in the United Kingdom
neither has he met any officer from the Homes office pursuant to the documents
he intercepted from the Ghana security agency which indicated that, Hon.
Sakande was holding a British passport at the time he picked election forms to
contest has a member of parliament in Ghana.
Asked
whether the UK Homes office has written to him personally to confirm that the
defendant, Hon. Adamu Sakande was a citizen of that country, Mr. Biebielle answered
in the negative and said he had never written any letter to them for
information about the MP national status in the UK.
He
also told the Supreme Court that, he has not met any officer from the Foreign
and Commonwealth office at the UK nor has received any document or letters with regards to the embattled sitting member
of parliament for Bawku central.
Mr.
Biebille told the panel of the Supreme Court that, all the documents he
tendered and attached to his statement of case was obtained upon a request to
the security agencies in the country and do not have personal knowledge of
their origins.
Defence
lawyer: All these letters and documents you have attached to
your statement of case were not written to you personally?
Plaintiff:
No my Lords.
Defence
Lawyer: You have also not written a letter personally to the
Homes office in respect of the defendant status of nationality?
Plaintiff: No
my Lords.
Defence
Lawyer: You did not tender these documents when you
were called as prosecution witness at the lower court on the criminal case?
Plaintiff: No
my Lords, I did not.
Defence
Lawyer: So you will agree with me that these documents are not
genuine documents?
Plaintiff:
That
is not so, my Lords
However,
in a cross examination by the principal state Attorney Mr. Sylvester Williams,
the plaintiff said he got all the documents and letters from the national
security and the police services of Ghana upon a request.
According
to him, he wrote to the police and obtained the documents when he went there
and made a request for it.
Asked
by the principal state Attorney how the documents was given to him, the
plaintiff said, he first went to the police and made a verbal request but he
was asked to put that request into writing and he complied for which he came
into possessing of the documents.
He
told the Supreme Court that, after obtaining the documents and examined them;
he was convinced that Hon.Adamu Dramani Sakande was not a citizen of Ghana at
the time he filed forms to contest for elections in Ghana.
Mr.
Biebielle further told the court that, the documents shows that the defendant
was holding a British passport and by the constitution it was illegal for someone
to hold a foreign passport and contest for election in Ghana.
“My
Lords, when I collected the documents, it shows that the MP holds a British
passport, and the little knowledge I have about the constitution, I believed
anyone who holds a different country or foreign passport cannot be an MP in
this country,” the witness stated.
But
the defence counsel contended that piece
of evidence and prayed the court to grant it leave to re-cross examine the
witness.
According
to Mr. Faibiile, the statement that he obtained the documents upon a request to
the police was not in his statement of case and that the defence would ask
further question in that regards.
The
court then went into chamber and came and ruled granting the defence a second
opportunity to cross examine the plaintiff who was in the witness box.
The
defence after asking the plaintiff few question prayed the court to adjourn the
case to enable them gather some compelling documents that would support the
defence to re-cross examine the plaintiff on the documents he purportedly receive
from the security services.
According
to Mr. Egbert Faibille, the lead counsel in the case Mr. Yonni Kulendi was not
in town and some of the relevant issues need to be cross check by him before
the defences continued to question the plaintiff.
The Chairman for the nine
member panel, Professor Date Baah therefore obliged the defence request and
adjourned the case to Thursday 22, for continuation.
The other members of
the panel were, Justice Julius Ansah, Justice Sophia Adinyira, Justice Rose Owusu,
Justice Jonse Dotse, Justice Anin Yeboah, Justice Paul Baffour- Bonne, Justice
Sulleiman Gbadebey and Justice Vida Akoto Bamfo as members.
Mr.
Biebielle who filed the suit in 2010, wants a declaration from the court in a
true and proper interpretation of Article 97(1e) and Article 94(2a) that the
MP, Adamou Daramani Sakande who holds a British passport, therefore owns
allegiance to a country either than Ghana and is therefore in contravening and
in violation of the 1992 constitution of Ghana.
According
to Mr. Beibiele, there are credible evidences enough from the National security
coordinator and the British High Commission consular to the effects that the
defendant, Hon. Adamou Daramani Sakande holds a British nationality while
sitting in Ghana parliament.
He
also wants any consequential orders that the court may deem fit or meet to
declare in the proper application of the laws of the country.
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