Brogya Genfi of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has filed an application at the Supreme Court to serve Honourable Habib Iddrisu, New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP? for Tolon Constituency by Substituted Service.
This is as a result of the fact that Yaw Brogya Genfi has so far not been able to serve the NPP MP with his application seeking to invoke the Original Jurisdiction of the court in the interpretation of Article 94(2)(c)(i) and Article 94 (5)(2) of the 1992 constitution.
After all attempts to serve the MP with the application failed, he had no choice than to proceed to file the Exparte application to serve him through substituted service.
Lawyer Isaac Minta Larbi who is the lawyer for Yaw Brogya Genfi filed the application for and on behalf of Yaw Brogya Genfi at the Supreme Court to seek leave of the court to serve Hon Habib Iddrisu with all the processes so far filed via Substituted Service.
The application is seeking to serve Hon Habib Iddrisu by posting copies of all processes so far filed on the notice board of the Supreme Court, on the notice board of the Parliament of Ghana, on the notice board of the High Court, Accra amongst others.
In the Substituted Service application, Brogya Genfi claims that all efforts and attempts to serve Hon Habib Iddrisu have failed.
Hearing of the application has been fixed for 14th December 2023.
It would be recalled that Brogya Genfi issued a writ at the Supreme Court against Hon. Habib Iddrisu invoking the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court for the determination that Hon Habib Iddrisu did not qualify to become an MP under Article 94(2)(c)(i) and Article 94 (5)(2) of the 1992 constitution since at the time he filed his nomination to contest the parliamentary elections in 2020 he was a convict.
According to the process filed at the supreme court Brogya Genfi alleges that Hon Habib Iddrisu has been convicted in Australia for a crime bordering on dishonesty which said conviction had not lapsed as at the time he filed his nomination papers to contest the parliamentary elections.
Under the 1992 constitution a person convicted for a crime involving fraud and dishonesty cannot stand to be elected as an MP until after 10 years after the conviction.
In the case of Hon Habib Iddrisu, it is claimed that as at the time he filed his nomination his conviction for fraud had not reached the 10 years minimum threshold required by the constitution to qualify to contest for the MP elections.
According to the processes filed at the Supreme Court Hon. Habib Iddrisu was convicted on charges of forgery and fraud on 28th November 2011 which makes him fall short of the 10 years requirement to qualify to contest.
As at 2020 when he filed his nomination papers his conviction was 9 years and therefore he did not qualify and could not have successfully filed his nomination to contest the parliamentary elections.
The lawyer representing Brogya Genfi is his application is Lawyer Isaac Minta Larbi who is the Chairman of the Eastern Legal Team of the NDC and the Head of Chambers of the Law Office of Isaac M Larbi, Okore Chambers, Adweso, Eastern Region.