Ayikoi Otoo: It will be a good thing to enter a nolle prosequi in Quayson's case

A former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Nii Ayikoi Otoo, says it will be good for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in future elections at Assin North if the current Attorney-General discontinues the criminal case against James Gyakye Quayson, the Member of Parliament-elect for the area.

Nii Ayikoi Otto, a former Ghana High Commissioner to Canada in a radio interview with Accra based Citi FM on Monday [July 3], stressed that it was politically prudent to enter a nolle prosequi in the case because the NPP needs to look at the wider public sentiment and how the people of Assin North will react to its continuation.

He was, however, quick to add that the Attorney-General on his own volition does not have the capacity to take the decision except if Cabinet so agrees.

"In the matter of negotiations, if we [NPP] want to win elections in Assin North next time and we go on with this trend and then we convict him, in the likely event that we convict him, and then he gets out again, we are going to go into another by-election, this time not with him, but what will the people of Assin North think of the NPP. Will they be ever comfortable voting us into power, will they decide never to forgive us anymore. This is what we should be looking at."

“It will be a good thing to enter a nolle prosequi and stop all this to show more maturity but you cannot as an Attorney-General do it on your own, you are not independent, you are part of a whole."

“The Attorney-General is bound by Cabinet decision and Cabinet secrecy even if he disagrees, once it has been taken, you are bound," he said on the Citi FM EyeWitness News on Monday evening (July 3).

“So, if you ask me, what I will tell you is that there is the need for some negotiation, a broader conversation on the matter,” he stressed.

The former A-G was speaking in reaction to recent comments by the Dormaahene that the state should discontinue the Gyakye Quayson trial in an Accra High Court, which comment attracted a swift rebuttal from A-G Godfred Yeboah Dame.

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James Quayson had pleaded not guilty to five charges of deceit of the public officer, forgery of passport or travel certificates, knowingly making a false statutory declaration, perjury and false declaration for office.

The charges relate to his participation in the 2020 polls at a time he supposedly held dual citizenship.

The Accra High Court ordered a daily trial, which ruling has been challenged by his lawyers in the Court of Appeal.