The respondents in the election petition are wasting time

It is definitely strange that the very respondents who alleged they NEVER received full compliments of pink-sheets in evidence at the Supreme Court could go halt counting on the very day KPMG started the count in the presence of their representatives!

From the various interviews that have emerged in the media, it is clear that the respondents are more interested in intensifying false and propaganda alarms than they are willing to let the truth come out of the count of the pink-sheets.

One thing that is clear is that, KPMG has already indicated in an interview in the media that they only come to do the counts in the presence of observers of the parties involved at the Supreme Court. They also made it clear that they do not keep the pink-sheets but rather the Registrar of the Supreme Court does.

The allegation of the respondents is that they took inventory of a number of pink-sheets but have now through their observers noticed that more pink-sheets were added to the figure they have. However, KPMG stated that they did not earlier count any pink-sheets in the presence of the parties.

The question to ask now is who added more pink-sheets? Knowing the current security around the pink-sheets after the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the count I personally believe the respondents are crying wolf for nothing and I mean nothing!

It is clear from what the respondents are doing both inside and outside the Supreme Court that they are more interested in wasting time than they are willing to get the election petition heard expeditiously.

I don’t think if they had enough defence they will be wasting all these time whilst the validity of President John Dramani Mahama is in dispute.

Old investors are not putting more money in their investments and new investors are not willing to come and invest in Ghana knowing that Ghana has not got a firm President yet.

Ghana is currently the worst country to live in my opinion. No jobs for school leavers, farming has collapsed, small scale businesses are not growing, markets are on fires on weekly basis and people are killed in Rambo-like style in Kumasi and other places. University students are been raped and the incidence of accidents on our roads is unprecedented!

Ghanaians are unable to now take care of their children and families are breaking down because of the deep-rooted economic and social hardships in the country. We now have what I have always described as serial strikes from almost every organisation in the country.

In the face of all these unpleasant happenings, one would have thought that the last people to want to delay the election petition trials would have been President John Mahama and his NDC party. However, this fairytale of more pink-sheets being added to the pink-sheets already in the custody of the Supreme Court without disclosing the number that has been added is just laughable!

Ghanaians must watch the antics of the respondents very well. The respondents must go into the analysis of the pink-sheets and point out duplications than holding on to alleged duplications or triplications of exhibits even when the star witness of the petitioners have made it clear that all pink-sheets were used only once in the analysis.

We can’t allow the few in government to continue to let the majority outside government to suffer through deliberate schemes to thwart the speedy hearing of the election petition.

Thank God the hearing is live on TV and discerning Ghanaians can tell who has a case and who hasn’t got defence but resorting to deliberate time wasting strategies.

I conclude by reminding the respondents once again that it is in their

supreme interest to get this case off their necks irrespective of the outcome- overt and covert wasting of time will not help their case in anyway.

Bye

Akilu Sayibu

Email: Akilu.Sayibu@live.uwe.ac.uk