Member of Parliament for Adansi- Asokwa, Kobina Tahir Hammond, has stated he does not sympathize with embattled MP for Assin North, James Gyakye Quayson because he warned him of his present predicament.
According to him, on the eve of January 7, 2021, when MPs of the 8th Parliament were going to be sworn in, he personally called a former Deputy Attorney-General under the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration to warn Quayson to stay away.
He argued the provision of Article 105 of the 1992 Constitution was clear hence his attempt to get the Assin North member to leave the Chamber and not to participate in the swearing-in or voting of the Speaker.
“If that was not bad enough, we had the precedent of our late brother Adamu Sakande who had gone through the same processes. In the end, he was disqualified and it didn’t end up there, he was prosecuted and incarcerated.”
“I was afraid and my heart was bleeding for Hon. Quayson. I sent Dominic Ayine to go and speak with him but under the circumstance when they were clear in their mind that they had the numbers to elect Bagbin as their Speaker, they were prepared to do whatever irrespective of the disqualification,” he stated.
Speaking in an interview on the plight of the Assin North MP and the criminal charges that have been preferred against him by the Attorney-General, Mr. K.T. Hammond explained it was ridiculous to accuse the government of a plot to reduce the number of the Minority in order to approve the E-levy.
According to him, the criminal charges brought against Hon. Quayson is in order because this is a different matter to the election dispute before the Appeals Court, particularly because the Attorney-General is a brilliant person who knows his stuff and what he is doing.
The Adansi-Asokwa legislator rebuffed claims by the Minority that the government is plotting to reduce its numbers to enable it to pass the E-levy and questioned why a government of the day would want to arrest members of Parliament.
He averred that Ghana practices democracy and therefore the Assin North MP’s plight is a result of his own actions because the alleged double Canadian citizenship is a matter that was already boiling and should have taken the advice to stay away from Parliament during the swearing-in in January 2021
Source: Mypublisher24.com