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NPP Puts The Cart Before The Horse

Mon, 24 Jun 2013 Source: Jackson, Margaret

By Margaret Jackson

June 23, 2013

The NPP suddenly find themselves caged! They have ran out of lies and excuses and the upcoming report by the KPMG is going to expose them big time to Ghanaians and the International Community monitoring the Supreme Court (SC) petition case.

Therefore, in order for the NPP to allow KPMG to release the report to the SC which ordered them to audit the pink sheets submitted with their affidavits, the NPP have put the cart before the horse by releasing the report and giving it their own interpretations and variations.

Nothing in this world compares to this shameful behaviour by the NPP. The NPP folks are suddenly panicking, and have realized that if they do not release the report and slant it to their advantage, their sins will find them out when KPMG releases the report to the SC on Monday June 24.

The drama by the NPP knows no end. On Friday June 21, the NPP asked KPMG to meet with all the litigating parties of the SC petition. At that meeting, the NPP reps sought to put themselves in the driver’s seat by ordering officials of the KPMG to do their bidding by counting about 800 unclear pink sheets using serial numbers. This authoritarian act by the NPP did not go down well with KPMG officials and those representing the respondents. It was soundly rejected.

Sensing danger, the NPP moved the very next day and published portions of the KPMG report by using cut and paste strategy. The supposed 11,842 pink sheets which the NPP claimed they submitted has clearly gone up in smoke as the numbers do not add up.

Therefore, the NPP are now saying that even though they made the whole world to understand that they submitted 11,842 pink sheets, there is nothing wrong with the up-coming report by the KPMG which would reveal that they actually submitted more than 13,000 pink sheets to the SC Registry. This according to the NPP is an ‘excellent gesture’ which needs a standing ovation from Ghanaians because they supplied more pink sheets than were required.

The NPP are even dousing the Presiding judge’s control copies which is 9,857, almost 2,000 copies short of their magic number of 11,842. They have developed a cunning explanation that Justice Atuguba’s copies have a total of 871 pink sheets that are yet to be counted and some duplicates hiding somewhere in his offices.

But the NPP put the icing on their “melting cake”, sorry, “melting case” that presently they do not need the SC to judge their case based on the 11,842 pink sheets. All they require is for the SC to take just 3,500 pink sheets that they submitted and determine the case. This is a party chocked with lawyers, but sorry to say that they do not know much about how the law operates. Or simply put, the NPP always seek to bend the law to their favour.

Unless the NPP go back to the SC to amend their case and inform the SC that they are now cutting down on their pink sheets allegation from 11,842 to 3,500, they can NEVER ask the justices to determine the case on just 3,500 pink sheets. Therefore, the argument that they are disseminating on 3,500 pink sheets is simply baloney and useless.

The admission by the NPP in a letter to KPMG dated Thursday June 20, that due to the sheer volume of material served on the different parties and the judges, they made mistakes and mix-ups strongly indicates that the NPP petition was not filed properly. It’s a case fraught with so many mistakes and calls for serious concern.

And in the law courts if we have such an issue on hand, the honourable thing that a judge/judges will do is to completely throw out such a case. A case which was not filed properly cannot be determined properly. Again, a petitioner who puts the cart before the horse by releasing a report which it is not authorized to do so cannot be trusted in any court of law.

magjackson80@yahoo.com http://majjacks80.blogspot.com

Columnist: Jackson, Margaret