Daramani Sakande files submission of no case

Monday, February 22,2010 (Page 55)

THE Member of Parliament for Bawku Central, Adamu Daramani Sakande, who is accused of holding dual citizenship, has filed a submission of no case.
The MP was expected to open his defence at the Fast Track High Court in Accra yesterday but his counsel, Mr Egbert Faibille Jnr., informed the court that after carefully studying the record of proceedings in the case, it had become abundantly clear that the prosecution had failed to prove a case against the MP.
For that reason, Mr Faibille said the defence had decided to file a submission of no case.
A Chief State Attorney, Mr Rexford Owiredu, did not take kindly to the defence counsel's submission on the grounds that the court at the close of the prosecution's case directed the MP to open his defence.
He further argued that the defence did not make the submission of no case timeously.
However, the trial judge, Mr Justice Charles Quist, said in the interest of justice he would study the defence team's submission and further directed the prosecution to respond to the defence team's submission of no case on or before March 12, 2010.
The case was accordingly adjourned to March 12, 2010.
On February 10, 2010, Mr Faibille told the court that he received the last chunk of the record of proceedings a day earlier and for that reason he would need a week to study it.
On February 2, 2010, the State announced that it had closed its case after the investigator in the case, Deputy Superintendent of Police Felix Mawusi, had testified in the trial.
The MP was, on July 31, last year, arraigned before the Accra Fast Track High Court, charged with nine counts relating to his nationality, perjury, forgery of passport, election fraud, as well as deceiving public officers to be elected as an MP.
He pleaded not guilty to all the charges and the court admitted him to bail in the sum of GH¢10,000 with a surety.
The MP was also ordered to surrender his Ghanaian passport to the court.
The complainant in the case, Mr Sumaila Biebel, had, on January 19, 2010, told the court that he had met the MP in London in 1998 and it was during a chat with him that the MP had told him that he (the MP) was a native of Bawku, as well as a British national.