[ 2011-04-09 ]

Adamu Daramani Sakande

I fled Bawku for safety, says Bawku MP
Adamu Daramani Sakande, Member of Parliament (MP)
for Bawku Central who is being tried for perjury,
on Friday April 8 told an Accra Fast Track High
Court that he had to flee to the United Kingdom
(UK) in the early years of the revolution in the
1980’s because his life was in danger.

He told the court presided over by Justice Charles
Quist that he initially went to Togo and then
later to Burkina, where with the help of some
friends he managed to get to the UK, adding that
“when your life is in danger you would do
anything to get out”.

The MP said this during cross-examination by Mr.
Rexford Wiredu, the prosecuting state attorney in
the case.

In relation to allegations by Mr. Wiredu that he
held a Burkinabe passport, the MP said what the
state alleged was a passport was a travelling
document issued to him by the British authorities
to enable him to travel.

The accused person, a security management
specialist, said whatever documents he took to the
United Kingdom (UK) were taken from him by the
authorities in the country before he was given the
British citizenship.

In response to why he did not give his correct
particulars to the British authorities to show he
was a Ghanaian after he arrived in the UK, the MP
stated that he gave his correct particulars to the
authorities.

In addition, the MP said the information based on
which he was handed the British citizenship bore
his place of birth as Bawku in Ghana.

The state attorney suggested that the MP was a
Burkinabe because the name Sakande was the name of
a Burkinabe of the Moshies, to which the MP
admitted that indeed his mother’s parents
migrated from there but his father was a Mamprusi
and the son of a former chief in Bawku.

Explaining further, he said there were Moshies who
had long settled in Ghana and were Ghanaians,
adding that the Sakande families had a long
history and were located in other countries such
as Ivory Coast and Togo.

The prosecuting attorney put it to the MP that his
renunciation certificate was not genuine because
the person who signed the letter from the Home
Office in the UK did not work there, but the MP
maintained that the documents were genuine.

The state attorney also suggested that the Home
Office letters usually had embossments different
from the one on the letters the MP tendered. The
accused person however said the letters were from
the Home Office.

Mr. Wiredu said some of the letters Mr. Sakande
had from the Home Office had signatures without
names on them, to which the MP responded that the
letters were from the same officer who signed
previous letters with his name on it.

The prosecuting attorney said the security
management specialist stated in the travel
document that he was born in Burkina Faso and
therefore was a citizen of that country.

In response, the accused person said he had to
flee to the UK but he never acquired a Burkinabe
passport. He maintained that even though the
British authorities gave him travelling documents
to enable him to travel, he had Ghana as his place
of birth in his British passport.

The accused person said his British passport was
issued in 2004 and would expire in 2014, but was
quick to say it had been renounced.

When asked why he acquired a Ghanaian visa to
travel to Ghana, he said it was due to fact that
there was nothing wrong in using a visa to travel
as a lot of Ghanaians in the UK did so.

Mr. Wiredu said records showed that he acquired
his Ghanaian passport while still a British
citizen, to which the MP answered in the
affirmative.

In response to why he had names such as Adamou
Sakande on the travel document, which sounds
French or Burkinabe, and others such as Andy,
Adams, Adamu Daramani and Adamu Daramani Sakande,
the MP explained that he used the name Andy while
in Bawku Secondary School.

He said he changed the name to Adamu not because
it suited him but because that was the name his
father gave him.

The case has been adjourned to May 23, 2011.

Mr. Wiredu, at the last hearing, prayed the court
to have the trial heard expeditiously on a daily
basis because the prosecution was in trouble.

He told the court, “My Lord, may I humbly
request that the case be heard on a day to day
basis for us to wash our hands clean of this case
because some of us are in trouble”.

As to what trouble he was in, Mr. Wiredu did not
say.

Source - Daily Guide

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