Akufo-Addo: I’m ready to meet Mahama ahead of SC verdict

The 2012 Presidential Candidate of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has expressed willingness to meet President John Mahama to symbolically demonstrate their commitment to peace ahead of the election petition verdict.

Nana Akufo-Addo, who is the first petitioner in the case, expressed his readiness to meet the president when a group of failed flagbearers who contested with him in last year’s elections, paid a courtesy call on him to urge him to accept whichever verdict the Supreme Court pronounces.

Akufo-Addo and his running mate Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and the NPP’s National Chairman Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey are in court challenging the 2012 presidential poll.

They argue that the polls were fraught with irregularities which robbed Nana Akufo-Addo of victory.

The respondents are President Mahama, the Electoral Commission and the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Fears of a likely post-verdict violence have necessitated several calls for peace by religious groups and civil society organisations.

The group of failed flagbearers is also supplanting the peace efforts with its separate calls on the two main persons involved in the case.

They include flagbearer of the People’s National Convention (PNC) Hassan Ayariga; the Convention People’s Party’s (CPP) Dr. Abu Sakara Forster; independent candidate Jacob Osei Yeboah; the Great Consolidated People’s Party’s (GCPP) Dr. Henry Lartey and the United Front Party’s (UFP) Akwasi Addai, popularly known as Odike.

The 2012 Flagbearer of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom was the only one absent.

Before meeting President Mahama at his residence, the group met Nana Akufo-Addo at his Nima residence where, the main opposition candidate, according to NPP’s Communication’s Director Nana Akomea, pledged his total commitment to peace after the verdict.

“They were very happy with his commitment and they suggested to him that they will like all of them to meet with the President, he assured them he’d be too happy to meet with the President and the rest of them to ensure that they provide the necessary leadership at this time of the country’s leadership,” Nana Akomea noted.