Yaw Brogya Genfi, a candidate for the job of National Youth Organiser for the opposition NDC, has filed a lawsuit against Habib Iddrisu, the member of parliament for Tolon.

How Tolon MP purchased products using a fraudulent Cameroonian Master Card

The plaintiff asks the Supreme Court to set aside the 2020 parliamentary elections that elected the Nw Patriotic Party member as an MP in the writ of summons made available to GhanaWeb.

But why does Brogya Genfi want the 2020 elections to be declared invalid by the court?

Prior to submitting his paperwork to challenge the Tolon on the NPP’s ticket, the Tolon MP was a Commonwealth of Australia resident.

The MP was accused with forgery and 10 counts of fraud while he was still in Australia. When he was brought before the Perth Magistrates Court, he entered a plea of guilty to each charge.

The affidavit included with the writs states that Habib Iddrisu stole Gideon Tafon’s Master Card and used it fraudulently to make purchases.

On December 5, 2011, Tafon was informed by the Murdoch Police Station of the Western Australia Police that an order of restitution had been made in his [Tafon’s] favour by the court following Iddrisu’s conviction by the Magistrate.

“The plaintiff alleges that the first defendant was a resident of the Commonwealth of Australia prior to the date of filing his nomination to run in the 2020 parliamentary elections and his subsequent election as the MP for the Tolon Constituency.

“The plaintiff claims that the first defendant was tried before the Perth Magistrates Court on one count of forgery and ten counts of fraud while residing in the Commonwealth of Australia. To each charge, the first defendant entered a guilty plea.

“According to a document that the plaintiff got from the 1st Defendant’s criminal victim and attached to the affidavit in verification submitted to this court, the 1st Defendant fraudulently used the Master Card belonging to one Mr. Gideon Tafon, the complainant, to make purchases.

“In a letter dated 5 December 2011, the Western Australia Police, Murdoch Police Station wrote to Mr. Gideon Tafon to inform him that, following the conviction of the first defendants by the Magistrate, the Magistrate had made an order of restitution in Mr. Tafon’s favour for an amount totaling $4,999.00. In paragraphs 7, 8, 9 and 10 of the writ, it was stated that the 1st Defendant had told the court that he had paid the abovementioned money to Mr. Gideon Tafon in full.

The MP was convicted of fraud and forgery in Australia in 2011, according to the writ’s petitioner.

Genfi added that the MP had not yet served ten (10) years when he submitted his nomination for the aforementioned elections, despite the fact that he had been found guilty at the time “on his own plea by the Perth Magistrates Court in Australia on the 28 of November 2011.”

Article 94 (c)(i) of the 1992 Constitution stipulates that a person shall not be qualified to be a member of Parliament if he “has been convicted for high crime under this Constitution or high treason or treason or for an offence involving the security of the State, fraud, dishonesty or moral turpitude”

According to Article 94(5)(a), a person is not considered to be ineligible to serve as a member of Parliament under subparagraphs (c) or (d) of clause (2) of this article if: (a) ten years or more have passed since the completion of the sentence or the date the commission’s or committee’s inquiry’s report was published.