A member of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) legal team in the ongoing 2012 Presidential Election Petition Yaw Buabeng-Asamoah said it was ‘painful’ and ‘unfortunate’ for President John Mahama to have said that truth is on his side and that he did nothing wrong to make EC declare him winner of the 2012 election.
The president had stated, during his visit to the National Chief Imam, Sheik Dr. Nuhu Shaributu, that he was very optimistic of winning the Supreme Court case because he did no wrong to become president in 2012.
But speaking on Wednesday evening on Adom FM/Asempa FM’s “Burning Issues” programme, Yaw Buaben-Asamoah who also doubled as a Deputy Director of Communications for the NPP, said the president’s statement was unfortunate particularly because he had not been attending proceeding.
“He [the president] did not even care to appoint someone to represent him in court – he disrespected the court and he has personally never stepped in court himself and yet every now and then he stands outside the courts and claims victory ahead of the Supreme Court’s verdict,” he said.
Buabeng-Asamoah asked “if the president claims truth is on his side then who is telling lies – was it not the same matter of the honestly of the electoral process that is before the court – so why is the president in the haste to claim victory when the Supreme Court is yet to decided.”
He is therefore urging the president’s advisors to admonish him to desist from the unfortunate comments about the Supreme Court proceedings because the matter went to court in the first place because of suspicions of corruption and fraud in the results.
Meanwhile, spokesperson for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) legal team in the ongoing 2012 election petition, Nana Ato Dadzie has said he saw nothing wrong with the president’s statement, adding that the president should rather be commended for saying “he will accept the Supreme Court verdict”.
He said the spokesperson for the petitioners, Gloria Akuffo had earlier told journalists the petitioners will win the case and no one vilified her for that.
Court proceedings resume on August 14, 2013.
