Bawku MP's defence deferred

Thursday, February 11, 2010 (Page 3 Lead)

THE Member of Parliament for Bawku Central, Adamu Daramani Sakande, who is accused of holding dual citizenship, could not open his defence yesterday because his lawyers could not have access to the record of proceedings in the case on time.
Counsel for the MP, Mr Egbert Faibille, told the court that he received the last chunk of the record of proceedings yesterday morning and for that reason he would need a week to go through them with the MP before the MP opened his defence.
Asked what her views were, the acting Director of Public Prosecutions, Ms Gertrude Aikins, prayed the court to use its discretion.
Subsequently, the trial judge, Mr Justice Charles Quist, adjourned the case to February 19, 2010.
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.