The besieged MP for Jomoro shockingly disclosed on Tuesday that she possesses dual citizenship, being Ghanaian by birth and Ivorian by birth, in the lawsuit challenging her right to run for MP at Sekondi High Court 1 in the Western Region, causing astonishment and sadness.
Dorcas Affo-Toffey, the controversial MP, was supposedly observed wiping tears off her cheeks during the cross questioning when spilling out citizen status in court, maybe as a result of the evidence and questions from counsel for the petitioner.
This occurred when Bright Okyere-Adjekum, counsel for the petitioner, took the first respondent in the case, a politician, through the commencement of his cross questioning.
The MP for Jomoro agreed that all of the petitioner's documents provided as his major proof are accurate.
She further stated to the court that she is an Ivorian by birth, having been born on May 4, 1971 in Adzope, Ivory Coast.
She further told the court she was born in Ghana on May 4, 1972, at the Kole-bu Hospital in Accra.
Aside from that, the court learned that the legislator obtained a Ghanaian diplomatic passport unlawfully in 2018 when she was not a diplomat.
Despite telling the court that she obtained her first Ghanaian passport in 2018, she subsequently revealed to the court under cross questioning that she has a Ghanaian passport.
The cross questioning of the legislator in the current election petition began when Godwin Kudzo Tamaklo, the member's attorney, confirmed with her that the witness statement she filed in court was correct and that she wanted to utilize it as the case's evidence in chief.
As a result, the lawyer asked that it be adopted and utilized as confirmed.
As requested, the court presided over by Justice Dr. Richmond Osei Hwere accepted the witness statement as her primary evidence.
As a result, the court delayed the case to July 18, 2022.
This followed an application by Joshua Emuah Kofie, who claimed that the MP was unable to run for re-election as a representative of the people of the constituency.
According to the application, the MP had several nationalities, including citizenships in the United States and Ivory Coast, in violation of the 1992 constitution.
The MP, on the other hand, denied possessing American citizenship, claiming instead to be an Ivorian citizen who had renounced it.
This prompted the applicant to ask the court to issue an order allowing the applicant to see the documents in order to determine if the MP actually renounced her Ivorian citizenship before running for MP in 2020.
The Court then ordered Dorcas Affo-Toffey to present documentation relating to her claimed renunciation of Ivorian citizenship.
However, the MP is said to have disobeyed a court order for the petitioner to file contempt charges against her when she allegedly failed to appear in court and present the required paperwork verifying her renunciation of the purported dual citizenship.
The MP's lawyer, Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe, appealed with the court to dismiss the contempt case and asked for forgiveness, emphasizing that his client had no intention of disobeying the court's instructions.
Bright Okyere Agyekum, the petitioner's lawyer, sought the court to pay the MP GHC 20,000 in costs for defying the court's instructions and wasting their time before dismissing the contempt matter.
After her lawyer stated that his client could not pay the money demanded by the petitioner's counsel, the court presided over by Justice Sedinam Agbemava dismissed out the case and granted a cost of GHC 5000 to the MP.