NDC General Secretary Asiedu Nketia
The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, last Friday stated that the opposition party is not in court to challenge the results of the December 7, 2020, presidential election but rather to challenge the conduct and constitutional duty of the Electoral Commission.
“My Lord, we are not in court to try to declare another presidential result by us (NDC). We are in court to challenge the performance of the constitutional duty of the first respondent (Electoral Commissioner) and to assess whether that duty has been discharged faithfully,” he said.
Mr Asiedu Nketia was responding to a question posed to him by counsel for the EC, Justin Amenuvor, during cross examination.
The NDC General Secretary was in the witness box as the first witness of the petitioner (John Mahama) in the case in which Mr Mahama is challenging the declaration of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as the winner of the December 7 general election.
Denies Mahama
While responding to questions in the witness box, Mr Nketia also repeatedly said he was not the petitioner (Mr Mahama), and therefore could not answer for some of the pleadings in the petition.
Frank Davies, a member of President Akufo-Addo’s legal team, accused the NDC chief scribe of trying to be “elusive and evasive.”
“He was largely evasive and for every question that was posed to him, his immediate response was that ‘I do not speak for the petitioner’. This is someone who in paragraph two of his own witness statement stated clearly that he was to lend aid to the petition filed by the petitioner.
“So, how can you come to court as a witness for a party and when you are asked questions in court, your response is that ‘I don’t speak for the petitioner?’ Then why are you in the court?” Mr Davies asked during an interview with the media.
Witness statement
Meanwhile, portions of Mr Aseidu Nketia’s witness statement were struck out by the court ahead of the cross-examination following an application by counsel for the second respondent to have those portions expunged.
According to the lawyers, some of the allegations contained in parts of the witness statement did not form part of the case former President Mahama pleaded in his petition before the court.
Lead counsel for the second respondent, Akoto Ampaw, argued that the statements are prejudicial to the trial and “extremely scandalous”.
The NDC secretary in his witness statement had alleged that the Chairperson of the EC declared President Akufo-Addo the winner because he appointed her in 2018.
He further alleged that there was bias on the part of the EC Chair because she has familial relationship with the President’s wife, among other things.
Lead counsel for Mr the petitioner, Tsatsu Tsikata, in his response noted that the petition made allegations of bias and unfairness on the part of the EC and it was those matters that had been addressed in the witness statement.
However, the Supreme Court, in ruling over the objection, struck out seven paragraphs out of the ten paragraphs that were objected to.
The paragraphs struck out were 6,7,25,26,28,30 and 37.
Drama
In a related development, there was a drama in court when Mr Asiedu Nketia requested a calculator during a point in time when he was under cross-examination.
“I can confirm that the totals are not the aggregate of the numbers there, but I don’t remember the actual figure that I got. If the court will permit me, we can add and find out what it is.
“My Lord, it will be very difficult to cross-check the figures without a calculator, especially when our mobile phones have also been taken away from us,” he requested.
This was in response to some discrepancies highlighted by the EC’s lawyer. He had suggested that Mr Asiedu Nketiah was aware that the EC’s results from Techiman South constituency would still leave President Nana Akufo-Addo as the winner of the December polls, contrary to pleadings from Mr Mahama that the EC erred in its tally of the results of the constituency figures, forming the basis for its decision to reject the total tally.
Mr Amenuvor insisted that the witness was aware of the results of the said constituency at the time of filing his witness statement, which he believes renders the petitioner’s analysis flawed, a suggestion which was rejected by the NDC chief scribe.
While doing the arithmetic in the witness box, the momentarily disoriented witness wondered why the device did not work as smoothly as he wanted.
His reaction to this challenge created some humour from the gathering. The court premises was thrown into another state of amusement when the NDC secretary stood up at a point in the cross-examination, prompting one of the Justices to urge him to sit down and feel comfortable.
“I am comfortable, I am a teacher, my Lord,” he responded, causing uncontrollable laughter in the court room.
Tape
Meanwhile, the court sitting will continue today where a tape is expected to be played to Mr Asiedu Nketia for the court to determine its admissibility or otherwise.
Counsel for President Akufo-Addo, during his cross-examination of the NDC scribe, said he had a tape whose content forms part of his case.
The court in adjoining the case stated that the tape would be admitted and filed into evidence only after its content had been played to the court and the witness.
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