Who else are these NPP leaders deceiving

Who else are these NPP leaders deceiving but themselves?

By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor

Monday, January 14, 2013

Folks, there is more to discuss about the lawsuit before the Supreme Court and why the NDC’s application to join it cannot and must not be denied.

In objecting to the NDC’s application, the defeated Akufo-Addo gave a porous reason that it was designed to delay “unnecessarily” the hearing of the substantive case, which is against President Mahama and the Electoral Commission in terms of the allegations that warranted that petition, in the first place.

Then, the NPP legal team disrupted proceedings of the Supreme Court on the first day of sitting, protesting against Justice William Atuguba’s membership of the panel on the suspicion that he had a vested interest in the case because his cousin (Dr. Raymond Atuguba) is the Executive Secretary of President Mahama (the second respondent to the lawsuit).

The team surprising made a retreat and swallowed back its pride and waywardness, writing to the Supreme Court to recant and appealing that the substantive suit shouldn’t take long to begin being heard. They haven’t as of now, cleared the air sufficiently enough to prove the innocence of Justice Atuguba. They need to cleanse him openly of the mud that they have slung against him.

Beyond this controversy, the NPP leaders have been quick to claim that the lawsuit wasn’t filed by the NPP (as a political party) but by its defeated Presidential candidate and his running mate, portrayed as “citizens” (as specified in the Constitutional Instrument 74 under which the petition was filed).

Good friends, do you see why Ghanaian politics continues to be dirty? I will explain issues here to help you know how the NPP is using duplicity and a low-level sophistry to throw dust into the eyes of discerning Ghanaians.

There are three petitioners in this case. The petition bears the names of the defeated Akufo-Addo and his running mate as well as Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey, the NPP's National Chairman.

Ask yourself why Obetsebi-Lamptey should be a petitioner too and you shouldn’t fail to uncover the NPP’s treachery and chicanery.

What was Obetsebi-Lamptey's status in the Presidential elections to warrant his being an interested party in an election dispute being challenged at the Supreme Court by those who actually contested and lost? In what capacity is he serving as a petitioner? Was he a candidate in the Presidential elections or a party chairman, representing the interests of the NPP? A party chairman!

I can understand why Akufo-Addo will drag along Bawumia into this battle because both can claim that the irregularities that warranted their petition deprived them of political victory. Thus, as a matter of course, they are entitled to seek redress as such.

Can we say so for Obetsebi-Lamptey too? A resounding NOOOOOOOOOO!! Was he a contestant to warrant his adding his name to the petition? NOOOOOOOOOO!!

So, on what basis did he become a petitioner if not representing the interests of the NPP and hiding behind a mere legal technicality of a “citizen”? And by establishing himself as such, he can’t extricate himself from the NPP that put him there to serve its purposes. Obfuscating the dichotomy of a “citizen” and a political party or rolling all into one for purposes of attempting to outwit the system? Judge things for yourselves, good friends.

On this score, then, it will be the height of lazy thinking for anybody to say that the petition was solely filed by individual members of the NPP and not the NPP itself. By virtue of Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey’s clout as the backbone of the NPP, everything points to the fact that this petition is being disguised for an obvious mischief and misrepresentation of issues.

Indeed, the petition was filed by the NPP, using the status of Akufo-Addo and his running mate as a ploy only. Once this duplicity is exposed, grounds exist to say categorically that the lawsuit was filed by the NPP.

Thus, nothing exists to make it impossible for any other political party, especially the NDC on whose ticket President Mahama contested the Presidential elections, to be granted its request to join the lawsuit. Otherwise, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey and the NPP that he leads have no right to be a petitioner too—if we accept the NPP legal team’s explanation that the petition can be filed by only a “citizen” and not a political party.

In any case, the Constitutional Instrument doesn’t say that a respondent cannot be a political party or an entity, or that it must be only a “citizen,” which is why the NPP’s lawsuit has the Electoral Commission (an entity) as the second respondent and not its Chairman, Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan (a “citizen”).

I insist that Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey is the NPP personified in the petition and the NPP is Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey impersonated as such. This kind of duplicity is a childish game that discerning minds like ours cannot fail to expose.

My NPP friends, some of us are too smart for this kind of low-level sophistry that your leaders are leading you to indulge in. Certainly, just as the end of an ox is beef, so will the end of a lie be grief. I am not in the least surprised that Akufo-Addo and the entire NPP lot can’t stop grieving because they have woven their entire political gamut around a tissue of lies, lies, and more lies—even as encapsulated in the electioneering campaign promises they gushed forth only to be punished at the polls in consequence.

Let me re-assure them that more wailing and gnashing of teeth awaits them at the end of the road.

I shall return…

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