The Asunafo South District Election Review Commitment has begun hearings into a petition filed against the citizenship of Alhaji Collins Dauda, the Brong Ahafo Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
At a hearing of the committee on Tuesday, May 4, 2004, chaired by Mr Yaw Manu, District Director of Education, Malam Issaka Kramo, the Mossi Chief of Mehame, and father of Alhaji Collins Dauda, told the committee that he was born in Ouadougou and gave birth to Alhaji Collin Dauda in Ghana in 1958 at Mehame.
His wife, Mariama, also known as Atampouga, was born in Ouagadougou, and thus hails from there, indicated Malam Issaka. When his wife took her turn along with his son, Alhaji Dauda, the following day, i.e., Wednesday, May 5, 2004, she told the committee that she hails from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. She stated that she gave birth to Dauda Kramo (Alhaji Collins Dauda) in Ghana in 1958.
However, when Alhaji Collins Dauda took his turn, on the same day as his mother testified, he told the committee that his mother was a Kusasi, and that he was born at Mehame on February 13, 1957. However, the synchronism in the year given by his parents as his birth date, seems to have contradicted the date on which, Alhaji Collins Dauda claimed, he was born, said an observer.
This discrepancy led the crowd to boo at him, while his lawyer kept asking him to state his correct date of birth in order not to waste everybody?s time. This intervention by the lawyer, made the two, (counsel and client), to argue for a short while. He then put his forefinger into his mouth as the cat-calls and boos intensified. Dauda arrived at the review committee venue in three vehicles, full of machomen, drawn from Kenyasi. They were armed with knives, whilst a handful of policemen present, looked on helplessly.
Collins Dauda?s eligibility to vote or be voted for, was challenged by the NPP party agents at a registration centre in the Asunafo Sough District during the recent nationwide registration exercise conducted by Electoral Commission.
