EC must be 200% sure that Mahama does not have a case – Martin Kpebu

Private legal practitioner, Lawyer Martin Kpebu has described the decision by respondents in the ongoing election petition to call off a possible cross-examination of their witnesses as anticlimactic.

On the part of the electoral commission lawyer, Martin Kpebu in an interview on JoyNews monitored by GhanaWeb averred that lawyers of the commission having decided not to put Madam Jean Mensah in the witness box must be 200% sure of winning the case.

Counsels of the first respondent (the Electoral Commission) and the second respondent (President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo) after the petitioner had brought its case to end on Monday, February 8, 2021, surprisingly told the seven-member judiciary panel that it did not intend on putting their respective witnesses in the box for possible cross-examination.

Chief Justice Anin Yeboah, the leader of the judicial panel said they were surprised by the move whiles the petitioner's lawyer.

Tsatsu Tsikata promptly rose to his feet to argue why it was necessary for the court to allow the witnesses, specifically the EC boss mount the box.

Reacting to what some see as a Trump Card pulled by the respondents, Mr. Kpebu averred that the lawyers in understanding must be very convinced of having put up a strong defense in the face of an equally very weak case by the petitioner.

“In law it is permitted anyway but before any party chooses not to testify then that party must be 200% sure that the case of the opponent would not stand firm. It is like the anchor would not hold firms that’s why that party would choose not to testify. So that’s the real meaning of Madam Jean Mensa’s election not to testify,” lawyer Kpebu stated.

With the petitioner’s lawyer arguing against the announcement by the opposing counsel, the court on Monday adjourned sitting to Tuesday to hear further arguments and to subsequently decide on whether witnesses of the respondent in the case, specifically the EC boss can decide to waive her right to testify to her statement or not.

Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress, John Dramani Mahama is at the Supreme Court Challenging the result of the 2020 presidential election declared by Madam Jean Mensa on December 9, 2020.

According to John Mahama, none of the 12 candidates in the election per the results announced by the EC chair crossed 50% in terms of votes as mandated by law.

He is therefore praying the court to declare the results null and void, and as well cause a rerun of the election between himself and President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party who was declared winner by the EC.