Head of Legal Affairs of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Abraham Amaliba has hit back at Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame over comments the AG made against the ousted NDC Member of Parliament for Assin North, James Gyakye Quayson.
The AG is on record as referring to Quayson as irresponsible for putting himself up for election when he knows that he had a criminal trial pending before the an Accra High Court.
This posture was sternly opposed by lead counsel for Quayson, Tsatsu Tsikata who earlier this week argued in open court that the language was not befitting of an Attorney General.
Dame disagreed.
Reacting separately to the comments in an interview with the media outside the court earlier this week, Amaliba told pressmen that Dame had exhibited irresponsibility and also showed he had narrow-vision on the issues.
“When you call somebody irresponsible when he is embarking on a democratic process, and because of that he is irresponsible, that should not be coming from an Attorney General and Minister of Justice.
“If you are a Minister of Justice, you must ensure that justice is done to all manner of people, and so, that was an irresponsible comment from the Attorney General, he doesn’t act like an Attorney General and I agree with senior Tsatsu Tsikata that his comment was irresponsible,” Amaliba stressed.
On Dame’s position that Quayson’s decision to run for parliament was not a national assignment but an individual aspiration, Amaliba differed, stressing that a desire to activate a constitutional right passes as a national assignment.
“Don’t forget that he (Gyakye Quayson) is undertaking a national assignment and it is a national assignment the Attorney General doesn’t understand, for the Attorney General, it must be Akufo-Addo inviting you to the Flagstaff House and giving you work.
“He doesn’t know that the Constitution also imposes a national duty, so that is the kind of Attorney General that we have, narrow visioned,” he added.
In the course of the past week, the Accra High Court excused Gyakye Quayson from attending the court on June 23 when it made a ruling on a direction to hear his trial on a daily basis.
The court stood by its position arrived at after a submission by the AG and slated June 4 as the start of the daily hearing. Quayson, meanwhile, will be on the ballot paper when the Assin North by-election of June 27 holds.
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Abraham Amaliba and AG Godfred Dame
