Victor Smith has called for an investigation into the citizenship of some Members of Parliament (MPs) in the wake of the removal of the MP for Assin North, James Gyakye Quayson, who was deemed not to have renounced his Canadian Citizenship before the 2020 elections.
According to Victor Smith, a leading member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), he is aware of a New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP who applied for the renunciation of her US citizenship way later than Gyakye Quayson did for his Canadian citizenship.
He said that the said MP is the legislator for the Nsuta-Kwaman-Beposo Constituency and a sister of NPP National Chairman, Stephen Ntim, Adelaide Yaa Agyeiwaa Ntim.
“Gyakye Quayson is in court for something to do with dual nationality. There are a few people in there (parliament) and we have to investigate this. It is documented that one NPP MP, called Yaa Agyeiwaa Ntim, a sister of the NPP chairman, had a similar issue.
“Even for her, she said she filed for her renunciation in 2020 before she went for the election. I’m almost certain that if we look at her document or that from the US Embassy, we would see that her renunciation did not take effect before we went into the election. But as for her, they have left her remaining as an MP,” he said in Twi in an Ahorot FM interview on Thursday, June 22, 2023.
Victor Smith, a former High Commissioner of Ghana to the United Kingdom, said that he is certain that the NPP MP did not get her renunciation certificate from the US government just like Gyakye Quayson before the 2020 election.
“In the case of Gyakye Quayson, they agreed that he has renounced his foreign citizenship but at the time he went for the election, the approval had not been given and so because of that he can’t be an MP,” he said.
He called on the NPP MP to prove him wrong saying, “I’m asking that this woman, Yaa Agyeiwaa Ntim, the MP for Nsuta-Kwaman-Beposo, to bring documents to show that the time she went for election, the US government had approved her renunciation.”
Watch Victor Smith’s remarks in the video below:
ghanaweb.com