A seven-member Supreme Court panel presided over by Justice Jones Victor Mawulorm Dotse, has granted an application seeking permission to serve Member of Parliament for Assin North Constituency, James Gyakye Quayson, by substituted service.
The Supreme Court further emphasized that the service should be done through a publication in the Daily Graphic and that the said publication will become valid after seven (7) days from the date of publication.
The order of the Supreme Court became necessary after bailiffs of the court failed on two separate occasions, to serve the MP with court processes in a case in which he is the First Respondent.
First attempt to serve
A bailiff of the Supreme Court, Joshua Baning, in his attempt to serve the embattled National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin North, James Gyakye Quayson, on 2 February 2022, at his office in Parliament House, got thrown out by the MP’s personal assistant (PA), and his bodyguard.
According to the bailiff’s affidavit of non-service, sworn on the 3 February 2022, and read in court, Joshua Baning says when he arrived at the office of the MP in Parliament, he indicated to him personally that he had come to serve him with some court documents.
Upon his [bailiff] disclosure, he indicated that the MP ordered his personal assistant and his bodyguard to assault him and to throw him out of his office.
The bailiff further indicated that the personal assistant and the bodyguard subsequently took hold of him and threw him out of the office for which reason, he was unable to serve the MP.
Second service attempt
On the 15 Febraury 20222, Godwin Ako Gunn, a Deputy Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), led a group of NDC faithful to obstruct a Supreme Court bailiff who had come to the High Court to serve MP for Assin North James Gyakye Quayson.
The embattled Assin North MP appeared at the Criminal High Court to answer for five charges preferred against him by the state. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges and was granted bail in the sum of GHC100,000 with one surety to be justified. He was also ordered to submit his passport to the Registrar of the court.
Obstruction of bailiff
Supreme Court bailiff, Anthony Agbenyedzi, pitched his tent at the entrance of the courtroom where James Gyakye Quayson’s bail was being executed.
It took about one hour and thirty minutes to complete the bail execution processes and all this while, the Supreme Court bailiff waited outside to serve the Assin North lawmaker.
However, just when the execution was over and Quayson was ready to leave the court premises in the company of his lawyers (Godwin Tamekloe, Abraham Amaliba, Sammy Gyamfi – who is also the National Communications Officer of the NDC), and other NDC Members of Parliament, Gunn walked to the bailiff demanding to have a word with him.
Several other persons who were all with Gunn, joined him, to deny the Supreme Court bailiff, the space and liberty to walk to James Gyakye Quayson to serve him.
The bailiff asked him to excuse him because he had work to do. Ako Gunn, got upset saying, “I want to ask you (the bailiff) a question and you want to slap me”. The bailiff, Anthony Abbenyedzi then asked, “Why are you attacking me?”.
While the obstruction took place, James Gyakye Quayson’s lawyers and his colleague MPs quickly accompanied him downstairs where their drivers were on standby to get him out of the Law Court Complex.
The case in Court
The case in which bailiffs of the Supreme Court seek to serve the Assin North lawmaker is entitled ‘Michael Ankomah Nimfah versus James Gyakye Quayson, the Attorney General and the Electoral Commission’.
The applicant in the case Michael Ankomah Nimfah, is seeking interpretation of Article 94 (2a) of the 1992 Constitution and an injunction on James Gyakye Quayson to stop him from holding himself as Member of Parliament for the Assin North Constituency.
