Will Akufo-Addo Ever Go To Court?

Feature Article, by Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.

The real intention was to put the impending end of the political career of Nana Akufo-Addo under suspended animation. For them, this legal action is more or less, like the intensive care unit, to immediately forestall any speculation that the old man is out and flat. Its role is to give them the chance to rally the party once more behind Nana Akufo-Addo, whilst they seek a way out of the political cul de sac in which they find themselves. We all recall in one way or the other, the calls by Nana Akufo-Addo's adversaries, including myself, speaking of the impending 2012 elections as the equivalent of the expiring date for the political career of Nana Akufo-Addo. Apparently, the message was not only received loud and clear, but they also did something about it. They considered how to present Nana Akufo-Addo as the NPP Presidential Candidate for the 2016 elections. The charge that they had been cheated were even made before they had any fact in mind! That explains why they had nothing to show to the Electoral Commissioner. The threat to go to court is only one stop on that tortuous road to reposition Nana Akufo-Addo as the flag-bearer of the NPP in 2016. Given the fact that the original objective seems to have been largely achieved, and the absolute possibility of a lack of evidence, the NPP may begin to look for excuses why they can no longer go to court with their “evidence”!

Even though the writing has been on the wall all along that Nana Akufo-Addo was never going to accept defeat in the impending elections, no matter what, the confirmation for the impending course of action came out clearly in a feature article written by Mr. Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko. In “Vigilance Is The Motto For December 7” By: Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, Feature Article of Saturday, 1 December 2012, Columnist: Otchere-Darko, Gabby Asare. It was this article that opened my own eyes, that he was definitely not going to concede, one week in advance, before Nana Akufo-Addo finally refused to concede defeat. I did not keep that information to myself. I shared it in a feature article:

"Akufo Addo Prepares Not To Concede Defeat!" Feature Article of Monday, 3 December 2012, Columnist: Mensah, Nana Akyea: www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=258250&comment=0#com. The reason why I became suspicious of the intentions behind the article of the Executive Director of the Danquah Institute, was because of the timing of the publication. It was written, at least one clear week before the vote. It was written in the heat of a campaign which all credible opinion polls indicated a win for the ruling NDC.

Apart from the timing of the article, another index was the choice of lies he decided to feature. In choosing the explicit lie that Nana Akufo-Addo “gracefully conceded defeat after the 2008” elections, as in the following: “Unlike Nana Akufo-Addo, John Mahama has no track record of adopting the gentlemanly course of gracefully accepting defeat after losing an election, simply because he has never tasted defeat at the highest level of political competition where the stakes are most high”, it became evident that they had something up their sleeves, even before the vote! I have dealt extensively on this in my previous article on this issue of whether or not Nana Akufo-Addo was going to accept defeat, and the reason why it is false to claim that he “gracefully accepted defeat” after the 2008 elections. Please see: "Will Nana Akufo-Addo Ever Concede Defeat...?", Feature Article of Monday, 10 December 2012, Columnist: Mensah, Nana Akyea: www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/artikel.php?ID=258980&comment=0#com. I have also had the occasion to confront Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., over similar speculations pointing to Nana Akufo-Addo's refusal to concede defeat. To which I responded, in part:

“Why are you feeling that Nana Akufo-Addo's last chance to be President lies in his refusal to concede defeat? You even wrote an article asking the then President-elect, Professor John Evans Atta-Mills, the democratically elected President of the Republic, to still hand over power to your uncle, even after it had become obvious that he had lost! This sounds like a joke, but it is not. Kwame Okoampa, who was then "a member of the Governing Body of the Akufo-Addo public relations outfit, The Danquah Institute, actually wrote a complete feature article calling on the President-elect to hand over power to Akufo-Addo! [See: “Atta-Mills Must Concede Defeat!” By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., ModernGhana.com, Featured Articles, 31 December 2008]

Needless to say that the refusal by Nana Akufo-Addo to concede defeat in the 2008 Presidential elections nearly plunged the country into a political turmoil. It is the same scenario all over again! And we know you people very very well! Ye nim NPP firi tete! Otchere-Darko just published his propaganda, not long ago, and I have responded! You may look out for "Akufo Addo Prepares Not To Concede Defeat!", Feature Article, By Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro. So we already know where people like Kwame Okoampa are coming from! And we can tell you that it is not going to happen! If you want to know what is my feature article, it begins with the following paragraph:

"I smelt a rat as soon as I read the latest article by the Executive Director of the The Danquah Institute. I almost called this article, “Danquah Institute Concedes Akufo-Addo's Impending Defeat!” Now, why would the Executive Director of the Danquah Institute, deem it fit to devote a complete lie to an article surreptitiously on vigilance? Why would he write a thing like this “Unlike Nana Akufo-Addo, John Mahama has no track record of adopting the gentlemanly course of gracefully accepting defeat after losing an election, simply because he has never tasted defeat at the highest level of political competition where the stakes are most high“? One thing is clear: they have a plan. What is not clear is the nature of the plan. From the way he dwelt so much on violence, it has to be something to do with violence. Difficult to tell who is pulling that off, but a losing candidate who has clearly come out to say that he wants to be in power “at all cost”, whose right-hand man is sanctimoniously complaining against political violence in a feature article that ominously portends that the Akufo-Addo camp are one-step ahead of the Ghanaian electorate. The plan is simple. In the event that Nana Akufo-Addo is rejected by Ghanaians, he is not going to accept defeat." Okoampa now spills the beans:

“As the press statement released by the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) clearly and aptly indicated, this NDC-instigated attack comes right on the heels of the so-called Manhyia Peace Accord (MPA). I, personally, found the entire affair to be rather strange, to speak much less about the downright suspicious, especially in view of its curious orchestration with the apparently active and central involvement of the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei-Tutu II, in this decidedly political affair.

I have since wondered, perhaps at the risk of being accused of paranoia, whether the Manhyia Peace Accord was not a deftly orchestrated ploy by somebody, or even a group of individuals, hell-bent on seriously undermining the will of the Ghanaian electorate by deviously attempting to preempt the latter’s constitutional right to vehemently protest, or even righteously call for the immediate nullification of the results of Election 2012, should it come to the forensically provable conclusion that, indeed, the entire exercise has woefully failed to meet the standard democratic test of credibility.”

This article of yours comes as yet another confirmation that Nana Akufo-Addo is sensing defeat and preparing himself not to concede defeat, in that eventuality! This is disgraceful! This is shameful! This is abominable! But then, it does not surprise me in the least that this is coming from Okoampa. He must by now be used to the very idea of a defeat.” See: "RE: Voter Intimidation, John Mahama Must Ask Mitt Romney", Feature Article of Tuesday, 4 December 2012, Columnist: Mensah, Nana Akyea: www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/artikel.php?ID=258263&comment=0#com

It is one thing to make wild claims that one has been cheated in what is probably the most open, free and fair elections in Ghana's history. It is quite another thing to prove it. They have already failed to convince the Electoral Commissioner. They cannot even agree among themselves just how much they have been cheated.

In one news report, we read :

“Media, EC stole 1m votes for Mahama - Sir John,” “The General Secretary of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie”, the story went, “is insisting that the one-touch victory for NDC’s John Mahama was as a result of the election being rigged by the NDC.

According to him, the Electoral Commission (EC) rigged an excess of one million votes for John Mahama to ensure that the NDC gets one-touch victory in the just ended polls....” See: “Media, EC stole 1m votes for Mahama - Sir John,” From: Twum Barima/Asempa News/Ghana, Published On: December 14, 2012, 14:46 GMT http://politics.myjoyonline.com/pages/news/201212/98689.php

In another we read,

"150,000 extra votes were given to Mahama – NPP claims"

"The New Patriotic Party (NPP) says its findings have so far revealed that over 150,000 votes were added to the fortunes of President John Mahama in this year’s elections. The party is confident the manipulated figures found so far could affect the outcome of this year’s Presidential elections – and possibly force a presidential runoff.

Addressing a rally of NPP keep fit clubs in Kumasi today ahead of its demonstration on Tuesday, Minority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said the party would be finalizing its research into the anomalies in the presidential results by close of work Sunday... See: "150,000 extra votes were given to Mahama – NPP claims", General News of Sunday, 16 December 2012, Source: Joy Online: www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=259621&comment=8656823#com

Others still put the figure at 100, 000. The current mediocre crew in charge of the affairs of the NPP know nothing beyond the use of political hoaxes. In 2008, it was the “Rawlings Hit-List”, which sought to give the impression that if Ghanaians voted for Professor Mills, Rawlings was going to go on a killing spree. In the 2012, they tried to smear the president as corrupt and even complicit in the death of the late President. The hoaxes involved self-respecting institutions such as the World Bank, Reuters International, and the Associated Press, all of whom came out to vehemently deny the ridiculous rumours! None of their hoaxes could fly. This charge of having been cheated is the last hoax, except if they invent another hoax as an excuse for not going to court. As expected, Mr. Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko is giving it a try:

“Breaking News: NPP lawyer's office broken into!”

The office of former Attorney General, Gloria Akuffo was broken into on Sunday.

Details are not yet available but Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, special aide to the party's presidential candidate, disclosed the burglary on Facebook.

His statement read: "The lawyer leading the NPP legal team on the challenge of the presidential results, Gloria Akuffo, has had her office broken into." More soon. See "Breaking News: NPP lawyer's office broken into", General News of Sunday, 16 December 2012, Source: GHP, www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=259636&comment=8658385#com.

I cannot but agree with the following comment on this latest development:

Comment: Is NPP crying wolf?

“If this story is really true then, NPP is not a serious party because in my view they should have taken measures to protect whatever evidence they had and not leave it unprotected in someone's office. It appears NPP is becoming the shepherd boy who cried wolf. So what? Did the burglars take away their evidence and if so would that make NPP going to court impossible? I do not believe this story or probably, something engineered by NPP to blame the government. Please spare Ghana your childish games.” - Author: Kofi Ata, Cambridge, UK, Date: 2012-12-16, 15:33:36, Comment to: And you believe this stuff? Wow!

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Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro | Ghana Committee, P-AI, Social Media Campaigns

Sunday, December 16, 2012 | SocialMedia@panafricanistinternational.org

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