Vote rigging allegations: Akufo-Addo must forgive Mahama for Rawlings’ sake - Moshake

A former executive of the Tema East Constituency branch of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has sown a plea for former President John Mahama in the wake of calls for his head, following Mahama’s allegation that President Akufo-Addo is planning to rig the 2024 election.

In response to calls that the former President should be dragged before court over the wild allegation, Mr. Stephen Ashitey Adjei is asking president Akufo-Addo to tamper justice with mercy.

“For the sake of former President Jerry John Rawlings, with whom President Akufo-Addo shared a warm and enviable friendship before he (Rawlings) passed on, I urge president Akufo-Addo and the ruling government to forgive.”

Mr. Ashitey Adjei, who is popularly called Moshake, made the plea in a short write-up that was posted on social media over the weekend.

“It is true that the allegation is serious but our country is at a place where the last thing it needs is another political upheaval due to the arrest of the opposition leader, and so I will plead that the president ignores the calls for vengeance, if for nothing at all, at least for Rawlings’ sake.”

Moshake’s plea follows calls by some leading people in the NPP for former President Mahama to be arrested and dragged before court for alleging that President Akufo-Addo is scheming to rig the 2024 elections for the NPP.

The former President had made that allegation in a meeting with some members of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) chapter of the NDC’s Tertiary Education Institutions Network (TEIN).

According to him, the President is scheming to use the Jean Mensa-led Electoral Commission to steal the vote in the next general elections.

Without providing any tangible evidence, Mr. Mahama said the EC’s move to establish the Ghana Card as the only acceptable document for voter registration is the main sign.

Following from there, NPP big wigs have called on President Akufo-Addo to let Mahama be put before court so he can prove his allegation. Among them is the Managing Director of the Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) and the NPP’s Constituency Chairman for Tema East, Nene Ofoe Teyechu Agbadiagba lV.

However, Moshake has said that the calls by these NPP hardliners is far fetched.

“As wild as the allegation is, we all know it is not the first of its kind and it is not only the NDC’s John Mahama who is making such wild claims. In the past there have been many in the NPP who have also made very wild allegations against the NDC or its members.”

Moshake pointed out, among others, unprintable insults that former President Rawlings and former President Atta Mills suffered at the hands of the NPP.

“Neither of these two victims of the politics of insults and lies went to court over the wild, unprintable things that were said about them. And so, I think that President Akufo-Addo must take it in his stride as a politician that somebody is accusing of electoral theft. It’s an unfortunate part of politics that comes with the territory,” Moshake wrote.