GO News has established some attempts being staged to scuttle the parliamentary ambition of Ghana’s High Commissioner to India, Mike Oquaye Jnr, with claims that he holds a British National and a dual citizenship.
There are reports suggesting that the High Commissioner who is also contesting the NPP parliamentary primaries in Dome Kwabenya holds a dial citizenship hence unfit to contest the primaries and become a candidate in the coming elections.
According to the said report which was couched from a release issued by one Stephen Amoaning an NPP- UK & Ireland Branch Member, Mike Oquaye’s dual citizenship contradicts Article 8(1) and 94 of the 1992 constitution, barring persons with dual citizenship from becoming a Member of Parliament.
However, painstaking investigations conducted by GO News Hounds into the said allegation as the party goes to its primaries on April 25, 2020, it emerged that the allegation is false.
Documents available to GO News reveal that HE Mike Oquaye Jnr, although possessed a dual citizenship, he renounced his British citizenship three years ago, in 2017, even before becoming a High Commissioner.
In a letter written to Mike Oquaye Jnr, from the UK Visas and Immigration Department on June 21, 2017 responding to his request of renouncing his British citizenship, it noted that Mike Oquaye Jnr who became a British citizen on March 30, 1972 has indeed registered as having renounced his British citizenship.
The UK Visas and Immigration Department therefore went ahead to confirm his new status as haven renounced his British citizenship under Section 12(1) of the British Nationality Act 1981.
This however gave credence to the fact that he is only a Ghanaian citizen.
Further checks have also revealed that, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Constitution does not require one to renounce his or her dual citizenship for primaries but only for the main election; that is if that person wins the primaries and becomes the NPP candidate for the general election.
Meanwhile, checks at the NPP UK Branch revealed that, there is no NPP UK-Ireland Branch from which the purported letter was written.
In a correspondence with Kweku Nkansah Paani, NPP UK Branch Chairman, he explained that there is no NPP UK & Ireland Branch and that Ireland is a separate Branch on its own.
He also noted that Stephen Amoaning is not known to the NPP UK Branch and that he (Kweku Nkansah Paani) has the full list of the membership and Stephen Amoaning’s name in not included as a member.
“He is not a member of this branch and such a name hasn’t been a member of this branch i.e. the NPP UK,” he stressed.
Kweku Nkansah Paani also averred that Stephen Amoaning’s views, if he were a member of the NPP UK Branch, do not reflect those of “this honourable and premier Branch. We do not malign our members for short term gains neither do we sacrifice our membership on the altar of political expediency.”
Many delegates who GO News has spoken to in the wake of the said publication said, as the party prepares for the coming primaries which is a battle among the NPP itself, there is the need for all aspirants to go clean on their campaigns since the victory of one is the victory for all.
Speaking with Mike Oquaye Jnr, he said he was not perturbed about the said publication and pointed out that it may be one of the ‘dirty’ strategies devised by his contenders or their followers to pull him down and confuse the Vetting Committee to disqualify his nomination.
“But I can tell you, that won’t work. I am going into the primaries and emerging victorious,” he said.
By: PROSPER AGBENYEGA/Ghanaian Observer Newspaper
