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In a case challenging the nationality of the Member of Parliament for Jomoro Constituency, the petitioner has told the Sekondi Takoradi High Court that Dorcas Affo-Toffey has two dates of birth.
Joshua Emuah Kofie of Nuba-Mpataba in the Jomoro Constituency last year filed a suit challenging the Jomoro MP to produce evidence of her renounced dual citizenship.
According to the petitioner, Dorcas Affo-Toffey was not qualified to contest in the 2020 parliamentary elections as she bore dual citizenship at the time.
In the petitioner’s case, the MP holds a Ghanaian passport with the number G2192584, issued in Accra on October 9, 2018, with her date of birth stated as May 4, 1972.
Joshua Emuah Kofie again states that the Jomoro MP also holds an Ivorian passport with number 18AR54825 issued on July 27, 2018, with her date of birth and place of birth stated as May 4, 1971, and Adzope in the Ivory Coast, respectively.
The petitioner said the MP, who is the first respondent, initially held an Ivorian passport with the number 16AK13363 issued on January 19, 2017, but she declared it as missing on July 26, 2018.
The first respondent subsequently applied and was issued with a new passport with number 18AR154825, on which she changed her profession from student to entrepreneur.
This was stated in a response by the petitioner to the MPs amended answer filed at the High Court pursuant to leave of the court dated January 25, 2022.
Dorcas Affo-Toffey, having initially filed a response to the request to produce evidence of her citizenship renunciation to the court, applied to amend her answer at the court’s last sitting.
As granted by the court, she accordingly filed her amended answer stating that at the time of filing her nomination forms to contest the parliamentary election, she was only Ghanaian.
She explained that by Article 48 of the nationality code and law of the identification of persons of the Ivory Coast, once a person holding an Ivorian nationality expresses an interest in not being an Ivorian national again, in order to become a national of another country, the person forfeits their Ivorian nationality.
She stated that in 2019, before filing her nomination forms to contest the December 2020 parliamentary elections, she had officially written to the Ivorian authorities informing them that she forthwith ceased to be an Ivorian national.
“Therefore, by the operation of Article 48 of the nationality code of Ivory Coast, I ceased to be an Ivorian national in compliance with Article 94 of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution to contest the Jomoro seat,” she noted.
However, the petitioner, in response to the respondent’s answer, maintained that she never renounced her Ivorian nationality in 2019.
According to the petitioner, the claim by the first respondent was disingenuous and an afterthought.
He contended that even if the first respondent submitted any such letter as alleged, the mere submission of any such letter did not strip the MP of her Ivorian nationality.
“At the time the MP filed her nomination forms, she was a full-fledged Ivorian national and thus owed allegiance to that country,” he stated.
“She was therefore not qualified to contest the 2020 parliamentary elections,” the petitioner stressed.
The court is yet to fix a new date for the hearing of the case.
source: Ghana Web
