Oppong Nkrumah justifies why Jean Mensa can’t be in the witness box

The spokesperson for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s legal team has argued that the Electoral Commission’s Chairperson, Jean Mensa, cannot mount the witness box because the petitioner has failed to name specific lapses in the 2020 Elections.

Addressing the media after Monday’s hearing on the 2020 Election Petition, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah stated that the Petitioner resorted to employing propagandist tactics to seek the court to allow Jean Mensah to be cross-examined by John Mahama’s legal team.

“This is not [a] budget hearing of parliament that the EC must come and justify its budget. You have come to court with a specific petition and the onus of proof is on you to show to the court that this is the basic case that someone needs questions to answer,” Oppong Nkrumah said.

He added, “You cannot resort to propaganda answers that it’s in the interest of all Ghanaians” for the EC chair to mount the witness box when there is no clear reason for her to do so.

Recalling the events of the 2013 Election Petition, Oppong Nkrumah noted that the then EC boss, Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, was obliged to be cross-examined because the Petitioners made a substantive case and produced evidence which required answers to some of the gaps in the elections.

“In the 2013 Election Petition, the Electoral Commission mounted the witness box because the Petitioner came to court with results of about 11 polling stations, pink sheets, to back same which are all infractions and strike them out. The Petitioner in 2013 mounted the witness box to make his case and that the EC had a case to respond to,” the Spokesperson for Akufo-Addo’s legal team argued.

The Supreme Court today, Tuesday, February 9, 2021, will determine if the 1st Respondent and EC Chairperson Jean Mensa, together with Peter Mac Manu, the first witness for the Second Respondent, President Akufo-Addo, should be cross-examined by lawyers for the petitioner.

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