Lawyer Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe has claimed that a senior government official associated with the Office of the President advised James Gyakye Quayson, the Member of Parliament for Assin North, to step down in order for the criminal case against him to be dismissed.

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Edudzi Tamakloe, a member of the legal team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), stated that the government's actions had caused significant distress to the Member of Parliament (MP) to the point where he contemplated abandoning his fight to retain his position as an MP.“They told him to resign for his prosecution to stop. That is why for some of us this criminal prosecution has not the ends of justice.

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It is purely politics; politics, politics, politics,” he said in a TV3 interview on July 4, 2023.He added that the person who approached Gyakye Quayson was “very high up at the Office of the President”.“I want to thank the almighty God for the grace to keep standing. The things Gyakye Quayson had gone through any ordinary person, possibly would be dead by now.

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“The emotional blackmail, the torture, the mental agony that he has gone through. At a point, he was denied even MP’s common fund allocation, What was his crime?” he quizzed.The MP, who was sworn in on Tuesday, is being prosecuted by the Office of the Attorney General for deceiving public officers to acquire state documents.

February 12, 2022, the State charged James Gyakye Quayson with five

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counts; deceit of a public officer, forgery of a passport, knowingly making a false statutory declaration, perjury, and false declaration.

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