"I am not a British," Bawku Central MP tells court

Accra, Oct. 4, GNA - Adamu Daramani, Member of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central, who is being held over triple nationality, on Monday denied that he was a British citizen and had a British passport. Daramani admitted that he had had a British passport but he denounced his citizenship before contesting the December 2008 parliamentary elections.

Opening his defence, Daramani affirmed that he is a Ghanaian. He told the Fast Track High Court that he lived at Community three in Tema and that the complainant, Sumaila Biebil, was his cousin. His counsel, Mr Egbert Faibille Junior, then sought an adjournment to enable him to prepare him fully before mounting the dock to state his case.

Daramani, in the company of his counsel, had come to court to seek a definite date to enable him to open his defence. Mr Faibille had earlier indicated to the court that they would prefer that their star witness, who possessed most documents on Mr Daramani's citizenship, would be available in the country on October 11 and appear before the court on October 12 and 13.

The court this time around did not agree to adjourn the case again. According to the court, after reading through the rules of the court, it had not come across any provisions stating that Daramani should wait for his star witness before opening his defence. In its ruling on Monday, the court noted that it had offered him six adjournments from July 8.

It contended that it had offered Daramani enough time to open his defence and would not grant him further adjournment and therefore ordered him to open his defence. The court ruled that failure to open his defence on Monday would mean that he did not want to do so.

Following the ruling, Mr Faibille led his client in evidence. The case has been adjourned to October 8. On July 8, this year, six out of the nine charges preferred against Daramani were dropped by an Accra Fast Track High Court (FTHC). This was after the court in its ruling on a submission of "no case" discharged him on charges of prohibited immigrant, forgery of passports, registration offences and two counts of unauthorised voting. It noted that the prosecution was unable to establish those charges, because some were defective and no court could safely convict the MP on them.

The court said the prosecution could not establish that Daramani was not a Ghanaian although the laws of Ghana, allowed dual citizenship. It asked him to open his defence on Monday, August 2, in respect of three counts of false declaration of office before voting, perjury and deceit of a public officer.

The MP informed the court that he would prefer that a United Kingdom-based immigration lawyer who worked on his citizenship gave evidence before he opened his defence. Adamu Daramani, aka Adamu Daramani-Sakande, aka Adamou Sakande, a Security Management Specialist, has pleaded not guilty and is on GH¢10,000 bail with surety.

The prosecution's case is that in 2008, after the presidential and parliamentary elections, information reached the complainant, Mr Biebil, that the accused, who won the Bawku Central seat on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party, had multiple nationalities. He, therefore, reported the case to the authorities and investigations revealed that Daramani had multiple nationalities. The prosecution said investigations revealed that Daramani had a Burkinabe passport number C10098625, which was issued in November 1999 and expired in September 2009.

It said Daramani, as a Burkinabe, traveled on the said passport to Ghana on March 19, 2004 and departed on March 30, 2004. The prosecution said Daramani also possessed and owned a United Kingdom passport number 094442650 on which he travelled to Ghana. He arrived in the country in December 2005, sought and obtained a Ghanaian entry visa with the Ghana High Commission in London. In addition, when Daramani returned to Ghana in 2007, he managed to secure a Ghanaian passport, thereby evading and abusing the county's electoral system and laws.

The prosecution said Daramani used the same representation to get his constituents to nominate him as parliamentary candidate, and he was accepted, thereby making them to believe that he was a Ghanaian and filed all the requisite forms. It pointed out that Article 94 (2) of the 1992 Fourth Republican Constitution of Ghana, forbade aliens from contesting elections in the country.