What At All Is Philip Addison Fishing For?

Ask Nana Akua Tweneboah-Koduah

The man who badly wanted the Supreme Court (SC) petition case challenging the results of the 2012 Presidential Election to end just within days after the nine justices have started hearing the case, is now dragging his feet.

If you remember the day that the NPP leadership and supporters massively circulated that the SC petition case would be determined before this year’s Easter festivities and that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is going to be declared the winner and president-elect for them to celebrate the Easter to its fullest, you will surely understand where I am coming from.

Days after the SC petition case started, the lead counsel for the petitioners, Mr Philip Addison, gave clear indications that he badly wanted the case to end so soon. He would therefore, no entertain anything that in his view would drag the case even a day longer. And he did not mince words in reminding the court that the respondents were attempting to slog the case anytime they put in a request to demand something.

If you had followed the antics of Philip Addison so closely in court during that time, you will never have imagined that the case will travel beyond June. In fact, you will have beaten your chest and defended Addison if somebody had predicted that Uncle Phil will start cross-examining the Electoral Commissioner, Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan on June 5 but 23 days after he will still not done with Dr Afari Gyan.

On July 2 when the SC resumes the hearing, the respondents would cross-examine the KPMG rep, Nii Amanor Dodoo based on the audit report of the pink sheets he submitted to the court. It is expected thereafter that Philip Addison who seems to be running away from Dr Afari Gyan for reasons best known to him will continue and probably finish with his unfinished double-checking.

Mr Philip Addison has developed cold feet by refusing to continue with his cross-examination of Dr Afari Gyan, but rather beating about the bush and making certain unclear and uncalled for demands from the SC which he claims will help him to continue and finish with his cross-questioning of Dr Afari Gyan.

We are all famously aware of the way Mr Addison wanted to renege on an agreement reached with the KPMG by the petitioners and respondents that they were all going to be given hard copies of the audit report and nothing more than that. We did not miss how pretentious Addison pretended that he did not know that any such agreement existed and wanted to weave his way through for the soft copy of the report which would have created some problems if he had had his way.

Addison who wants the case to end so soon was claiming that the soft copy would have aided his team to proceed with the cross-examination of Dr Afari Gyan, as if the hard copy in his custody was going to do otherwise.

We also saw Philip Addison moving to demand collation report of 13 constituencies from the Electoral Commission, claiming that he needs to review 2,000 pink sheets more before he can proceed with his cross-examination of Dr Afari Gyan. This ridiculous demand which is coming at a time that the case is winding down was shot down by the justices, and we still do not know what else is up the sleeves of Addison come next week.

Many are wondering what Philip Addison is really looking for before continuing with Dr Afari Gyan. Is he afraid of Akufo-Addo’s former roommate? When Addison started to question Dr Afari Gyan, Akufo-Addo had left town for some “scheduled engagements and medical check-up”. But now that he is back, it would be very interesting to see the body language of Nana Akufo-Addo, as his lawyer confronts his former roommate who did not crown him the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces and President-Elect at all cost, hence his decision to contest the results in court.

Philip Addison who was clamouring for the case to end quickly is simply wasting everybody’s time. Many people have read meanings into his feet dragging to mean that he has not landed any solid punches to help his bogus case which is why he is still keeping Afari Gyan in the witness box.

Indeed if Addison has the so-called solid and mind blowing evidence which the NPP trumpeted over and over the airwaves, he would have finished Dr Afari Gyan in less than two days. What Addison is now doing is recycling all the questions he has been asking Dr Afari Gyan by using some fine lawyerly language or English to see if he would crack at a point in time.

If you talk to some brainy lawyers out there, you get the feeling that Philip Addison has reached his dead end on a bad case which the NPP have seen is going nowhere. In fact some will tell you privately that Addison’s fishing expedition at this point will not yield any “big catch” that will inure to the benefit of the petitioners. That is why Addison keeps soldiering on to see if……..

nakuakoduah@yahoo.com