Bawku MP Has No Case

EGBERT FAIBILLE Jnr., Counsel for the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central, Hon. Adamu Daramani Sakande, yesterday made a submission of no case on behalf of the MP on grounds that the prosecution team had so far failed to prove that he was indeed a British citizen at the time he stood for parliamentary elections. He told an Accra Fast Track High Court where the MP was expected to open his defence in a trial in which he has been accused of having multiple nationalities, that after going through the record of proceedings he has come to the conclusion that the prosecution has not been able to prove any case against the MP for which he should open his defence. Counsel for the accused person noted therefore that since the state had not been able to make any of the nine charges of nationality fraud and illegal voting stick, the case should end as it is, after which the trial judge, Justice Charles Quist, asked the state attorney in the case, Rexford Wiredu, if he had anything to say to the submission. However, Mr. Wiredu told the court he had not been served on the submission of no case, to which Mr. Faibille offered to serve him a copy. The state attorney said once the MP was expected to open his defence he should go ahead and do so, but the judge noted once a submission of no case has been made it would only be fair for him to respond to it. Mr. Wiredu expressed his willingness to return to the court later to respond to the submission of no case. The case was subsequently adjourned to March 12, 2009. DSP Felix Mawusi, in the course of the trial, admitted that he neither interrogated the MP during his investigation, nor did he go to Bawku to find out if the accused was a native of the land before he was arraigned. He made these admissions when he was being cross-examined by Mr. Faibille. In addition, he said he could not obtain further information about the MP apart from the fact that his passport number was that of a British citizen. He however could not tell if the accused had denounced his citizenship or not. The investigator, who said he had never seen the passport of the accused person, also observed that the complainant, Sumaila Bielbiel, did not tell him he had never seen the passport of Hon. Adamu Sakande, who is also an accredited security system specialist. Mr. Faibille asked whether there was any information on the document from the British Commission which proved that Mr. Sakande was still a British national, to which the witness said there was nothing on the document to reveal that he was not a British citizen and stated that as far as he was concerned the passport was still in use. He said in the course of his investigation he contacted Mr. Bielbiel and the District Elections Officer in Bawku and later wrote to the British High Commission to find out the passport number of the accused person. According to him, the British High Commission replied and confirmed that the passport number was indeed that of a British citizen and tendered the document in evidence, after which he said he served criminal summons on the MP. Mr. Bielbiel, the complainant, in his evidence said he had never seen any passports belonging to the MP, rather he saw photocopies of passports and read the stories about his multiple nationalities in the newspapers.