Election Petition: Claims that court was not avenue for accountability strange – Terkper

A former Finance Minister Mr Seth Terkper has said described claims that if the petitioner in the recently-held election petition hearing at the Supreme Court wanted accountability from the Chair of the Electoral Commission (EC) he should have rather gone to parliament instead of court, as strange.

His comments come after the National Youth Organizer of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) Henry Nana Boakye (Nana B) criticized the petitioner Mr John Mahama who wanted the Chair of the EC Mrs Jean Mensa to mount the witness box to be cross examined.

Mr Mahama had said that the apex court and Counsel for the 1st Respondent in the petition hearing aided Jean Mensa from accounting to the people of Ghana by evading cross examination.

Speaking after the dismissal of his petition by the Supreme Court on Thursday March 4, Mr Mahama said “Ghanaians will also remember this 2021 Election Petition for that profound moment when the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission opted to evade public scrutiny.

“Everything was done in this trial to prevent the Commission from accounting to the people in whose name they hold office.

“Requests for Interrogatories were dismissed. A request to inspect documents in the possession of he Commission was turned down. The request for admission of facts was ignored.”

But Nana B said if Mr wanted accountability, he should have gone to Parliament and not the court.

He said, “Jean Mensa has explained everything. She has accounted for everything and if you go to the Supreme Court’s website, you’ll find it there. The Court has even made a judgment on that. There is only one law. We don’t have laws for people who occupy public office and for common people.”

“If all we wanted is accountability then we are at the wrong forum. We should have gone to Parliament. Parliament is where we have the MPs who represent the people. The NDC have a good number in Parliament so they could have written to the Speaker and asked him to summon the EC chair so that she accounts to the people. Here, we are at the court of law so we don’t have a law for Jean Mensa and a law for others,” he added

Reacting to his comment in a tweet, Mr Tekrper said “A bit overstretched? Seems strange and uncomfortable to think that the purpose of our Courts is not to hold citizens & others “accountable” for the offences they commit!!”