Trial of Bawku Central MP over identity fraud begins

Accra, Aug. 11, GNA - Defence counsel for Adamu Daramani, Member of Parliament for Bawku Central who is facing charges relating to identity fraud, on Tuesday said his client did not possess a British passport as alleged.

"Daramani doesn't have a British passport; that nationality had long been renounced and the passport returned to British authorities," Mr Yonni Kulendi, counsel for Daramani, told the Fast Track High Court on Tuesday.

Mr Kulendi disclosed this when the prosecution asked that he should be ordered to surrender his British passport to the court. Daramani, aka Adamu Daramani-Sakande, aka Adamou Sakande, a security management specialist, is facing nine counts including prohibited immigrant and forgery of travelling certificates.

Other charges are false declaration for office, perjury, deceiving public officer, unauthorized voting, and other registration offences. Daramani has pleaded not guilty and the court presided over by Mr. Justice Charles Quist admitted him to bail in the sum of GH¢10,000 with surety.

He is to deposit his Ghanaian passport with the Court's Registry. Mr Kulendi said if his client had the British passport, he would ask him to surrender it peacefully.

He noted that the order to compel his client to surrender the passport would mean variation in the bail condition without any cause. According to Mr. Kulendi, it had not been alleged that accused was running away, saying the accused had complied with all the court's directives.

Soon after the explanation by Mr Kulendi, the prosecution stated that it would not pursue issues bordering on the British passport but would allow the matter to take its course.

The court, however, ordered the Registry to make available all travelling documents on Daramani's tendered in evidence for study. Earlier, an Assistant Director of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), Mr Nolasco Nyeidu, had testified in respect of the various travelling documents, including the British passport, of Daramani. Led in evidence by Ms Gertrude Aikins, Acting Director of Public Prosecution, Mr Nyeidu said he was the officer in charge at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), and had come across information on Daramani.

According to Mr Nyeidu some of the functions of the GIS at KIA were to capture and store information on the travelling public and scan pictures of passport holders. He said the travelling documents of Dramani contained a history of his visits. Among the documents were the Ghanaian, British and Burkinabe passports which were issued on separate dates, the Immigration Officer alleged. On the Burkinabe passport, witness said on March 19, 2004 the accused used the passport in entering Ghana and departed on March 30 of the same year.

According to the witness, GIS also scanned the Ghanaian passport of the accused with number H0526374 issued in London on February 15, 2001 to expire in February 2011, adding that it mentioned the place of birth as Bawku and August 6, 1962 as the date of birth. "That passport was used for departure on December 7, 2007 and was used on arrival on December 20, 2007," witness added. According to him the GIS had departure and arrival record of the accused with the same passport commencing from September 16-18, 2008. Witness said a British passport of the accused, with number 09442649, was issued on November 18, 2004 and would expire on November 18, 2014. According to the witness, the passport also gave the date of birth of the accused as August 6, 1962 and Bawku as the place of birth. Witness said the passport disclosed that the accused was a British national.

Answering questions under cross-examination by Mr Kulendi, the witness, who had worked with GIS for the past 16 years, admitted that he obtained information on accused on August 10, this year, following a directive from his superiors.

The case of the state read in court stated that the complainant was Sumaila Biebil, a cattle herdsman in Bawku.

In 2008, after the Presidential and Parliament election, information got to the complainant that accused who won the Bawku Central seat on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party had multiple nationalities. As part of Mr Biebil's civil responsibility, he noticed that Daramani had violated the law and taken the whole country for a ride. The complainant, therefore, reported to the authorities and investigations revealed that accused had multiple nationality. The prosecutor said investigations had revealed that the accused had a Burkinabe passport number C10098625, which was issued in November 1999 and would expire in September 2009.

According to him, the accused who was a Burkinabe travelled on the said passport to Ghana on March 19, 2004 and departed on March 30, same year. Prosecution said it would also lead evidence to show that accused also possessed and owned a United Kingdom passport number 094442650 on which he travelled to Ghana and arrived in the country on December 2005 and sought and obtained a Ghanaian Entry Visa with the Ghana High Commission in London. In furtherance to this, Prosecution would prove to the court how the accused when returning to Ghana in 2007, managed to get a Ghanaian passport thereby evading and abusing the county's electoral system and laws.

In addition, the prosecution said accused used the same representation to get his constituents to nominate him as parliamentary candidate, and was accepted, thereby making them to believe that he was a Ghanaian. In the same vain, he filed all the requisite forms indicating that he was a Ghanaian.

Prosecution pointed out that Article 94 (2) of the 1992 Constitution, forbids aliens from contesting elections in the country.