Election Petition: Paul Adom-Otchere takes on NDC, Asiedu Nketia

Paul Adom-Otchere, the host of Good Evening Ghana has said the opposition NDC cannot disclose in court that they don’t have duplicates of the pink sheets used for the December 7, 2020, elections.

According to him, the Electoral Commission (EC) is by law to provide the party with duplicates of the pink sheets, “how then does the party go to court to mount a petition and say that I don’t have the results”.

Adom-Otchere who was speaking on the Editorial segment of his show on Thursday, February 4, opined:

“I believe they have the results. The NDC must come and show the results that they have, unless, of course, their concern is the results that they have may not make their case but if the results they have will make their case for which reason they have mounted an election petition, whether the petition is successful or not, they owe it to Ghanaians to show the Ghanaian people that we have the election results.”

Adom-Otchere further indicated that if all the Independent Election Observers including the media and Civil Society Organisations were able to independently collate their figures and get the results needed, how much more the NDC who is a stakeholder in the elections, claim that they don’t have the duplicates of the pink sheets.

“What is the point about the NDC saying that I do not have it? We have to make it impossible for the NDC to say that they don’t have the results; they must bring the results,” he stressed.

He expressed his surprise that a major opposition political party after governing Ghana for so many years and having had important individuals within the rank and file of the party; “and Johnson Asiedu Nketia go to court and on three important questions say I don’t have the results. What is the meaning of this?”

He questioned further: “Is the NDC taking Ghanaians for granted? Are they taking their own people for granted?”

John Dramani Mahama, who was the flagbearer of the NDC is disputing the election results as declared by the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission on December 9, 2020.

He has already presented two of his witnesses, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, NDC General Secretary and Dr. Michael Kpessah-Whyte, who was an NDC agent at the EC’s ‘Strongroom’. Both men have been cross-examined by the counsels for the 1st and 2nd Respondents.

On Wednesday, February 3, Tsatsu Tsikata, lead counsel for the Petitioner, prayed the court for permission to file a new witness statement.

Tsikata explained that a possible witness had some health complications and due to the confidentiality of that person’s condition, the court should meet in chambers for that discussion. The court duly obliged him.

It is not yet clear whether that matter was related to Rojo Mettle-Nunoo, and whether Mettle-Nunoo, a former Deputy Minister of Health, will mount the witness box on Friday to be cross-examined.