Election Petition Against Jomoro MP Dismissed by Sekondi High Court

The Sekondi High Court has thrown out the election petition case against Jomoro MP, Dorcas Affo-Toffey.

According to the Court, she was eligible to contest the 2020 parliamentary election.

The Judge, Justice Dr. Richmond Osei Hwere, delivering his ruling, said the MP lost her Ivorian citizenship at the very time she acquired her Ghanaian citizenship.

Mr Joshua Emuah Kofie, a resident of the constituency challenged the eligibility of the MP to contest as a representative of the people in the constituency.

According to him, the MP is holding multiple nationalities, including American and Ivorian citizenships, which contravenes the 1992 Constitution.

However, the MP has denied having an American citizenship and claimed to have renounced her Ivorian citizenship.

Earlier, the applicant prayed the Court to give an order to inspect the documents to ascertain whether the MP truly renounced her Ivorian citizenship before filing to contest as MP in 2020.

Dorcas Affo-Toffey was subsequently ordered by the Court to produce documents that prove her supposed renunciation of Ivorian citizenship, but she failed to do so.

This led to the applicant subsequently filing contempt charges against her for failing to provide the requisite documents.

Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe, counsel for the MP, pleaded with the court to strike out the contempt case and asked for forgiveness noting his client had no intentions of disrespecting the orders of the court.

The lawyer for the petitioner, Bright Okyere Agyekum asked the Court to award a cost of GHC20,000 against the MP for disobeying its orders and wasting their time before striking out the case of contempt.

The Court presided by Justice Sedinam Agbemava subsequently struck out the case and awarded a cost of GHC5,000 against the MP after her lawyer pleaded his client could not afford the amount requested by the petitioner’s lawyer, noting that “things are hard.”