Edudzi Tamakloe, a member of the legal team of the National Democratic Congress has said the party has been ‘taken aback’ by the instruction from the Sekondi High Court, ordering Dorcas Afo Toffey to produce her Ivorian citizenship renunciation document in ten days.
The court on Tuesday, directed Afo Toffey to make available the evidence of her renunciation within ten working days.
Commenting on the ruling by the court in an Okay FM interview, Edudzi Tamakloe said the ruling pushes the burden of proof on the NDC MP which should not be the case.
He argued that since the NPP are the petitioners in the case, they should produce evidence to substantiate their claim that Afo Toffey did not renounce her Ivorian citizenship prior to the elections.
He said there is a precedence and that they will go back to the court to seek further clarifications on the ruling.
“We filed an affidavit, arguing that for a trial of this nature, the burden of proof lies on the petitioner. You are making an allegation and we have denied so you have to approve the allegations. That was our point to the court. We also made it clear that there is precedent and happened in 1992.
“When late former President was standing for the polls, someone took him to the Accra High Court that he doesn’t qualify to be president of Ghana because Rawlings was a citizen of the UK so he had to denounce his citizenship at the British High Commission before he could contest.
“The court ruled that there is no need for Rawlings to produce the certificate of renunciation because it can be done in different forms and that the mere fact that Rawlings was a military officer and head of state, he had shown renunciation.
“In our answer there was reference to any document but the judge took it as there was an indirect reference to a document. Honestly it has taken us aback so we will do further studying of the ruling.
“This is just the beginning of the case. The judge said indirect reference so we will go clarification and what it means by indirect reference,” he said.
The Jomoro case is one of sixteen petitions filed by both leading parties contesting the result of some parliamentary seats.
The NPP is contesting that at the time of the elections, Dorcas Afo Toffey could not qualify to hold public position in Ghana.
