By Margaret Jackson
September 3, 2013
In football league matches, winners are awarded a maximum of three points (3) while losers get nothing (0). Therefore, if Team Kay plays Team Hay and the latter beats the former by 10 goals to nothing, Team Hay gets three (3) points while Team Kay gets nothing (0). In another breath if Team Poe plays Team Doe and Team Poe overcomes Team Doe by five (5) goals to four (4), Team Poe also gets three (3) points while Team Doe licks its wounds with no point (0).
There will never be an instance whereby a loser gets any point. A loss is a loss. You don’t get any marks for losing a tournament. And just because Team Kay went down 10-0 and Team Doe was whacked 5-4, it does not make Team Doe a winner in any sense or better.
In court, cases are prosecuted based on its merits and demerits. Sometimes cases are tried by a jury and other times a judge will listen to the evidence from the prosecutor and defence and determine the case. Unless you have a hung jury, if a majority of nine (9) jury members say you are guilty by 9-0, 8-1, 7-2, 6-3 or 5-4 you are pronounced guilty.
For instance, if you are pronounced guilty by a 5-4 decision by a jury, you can never say that because four (4) of the jury members voted against your conviction, you are not guilty or that the verdict was not right. If you’ve ever gone to law school and call yourself a lawyer and you think that a 5-4 verdict by a panel of judges is a vindication to the vanquished, then you definitely have issues and possibly do not know what you learnt at the law school. Those who went to law school and have not made anything from what they learnt will argue in this vein.
This is what we are hearing all over from NPP lawyers and supporters across board since their 2012 Presidential Election Petition case was dismissed by the nine-member Justices of the Supreme Court on Thursday August 29, 2013. They are claiming that because four (4) of the SC Justices voted to annul and re-run elections in areas where the NPP claimed there were over voting, voting without biometric verification and no signature by presiding officers, it gives credence to their childish allegations that there were malpractices and irregularities.
The NPP has forgotten that five (5) other Justices of the SC who form the majority claimed that their case on over voting, voting without biometric verification and no signature by presiding officers has no merit which is why it was thrown away. Majority carries the vote, it carries the day! Finito!
Assuming if four (4) of the Justices have voted that there were no over voting and five (5) others have voted to support the NPP on that claim, would the NPP say that the NDC debunk on that claim has any merit? Suddenly, it’s hallucinating galore at the NPP quarters. And because they cannot accept defeat on the bogus petition case, the NPP has gone on the attack mode and giving different interpretations to the verdict.
If someone claims that you are hallucinating, what it means is that you have the perception of letting something that does not exist to become real. The NPP folks lost the 2012 Presidential Election in the polls and took the results to court and also lost. But they cannot stand the fact of losing twice in a row – in the polls and at the law courts.
Therefore, it’s hallucinating galore. The NPP folks are seeing things that are not there, they are also hearing things that does not exist, likewise they are feeling, smelling and tasting victory that has definitely eluded them, which is why they are in denial mode and hallucinating. Just hear them go on the attacks!
Gabby Otchere Darko This disgruntled NPP member who has caused so much pain for the party within the past 7 or so years and is one of the prominent reasons the NPP has lost two elections in a row, could not understand why the election petition case was dismissed by the SC and went on the attack mode by stating that the verdict was corrupt judgement. Was it a corrupt judgement?
Gabby Darko, a cousin of Nana Akufo-Addo, got the nerve to state that, “This was a corrupt judgement, and I say so without apologies.” Nobody in his or her right thinking mind needs an apology from Gabby because he’s not “X” Factor in Ghana politics.
This man who pencilled himself for a high profile job in Akufo-Addo’s imagined administration went on berating, “The fact that I totally disagree with a decision of the court does not mean I do not accept it. Justice is not what I want it to be. But, I will not stop condemning what I find to be wrong. I'm entitled to my opinion as much as the nine justices were and I maintain that what they did was farcical and the decision was a corrupt one, disrespectful of the Constitution of the Republic.”
Gabby later let out the ball, “Let them do me in for contempt, after all Grandpa Danquah died in jail for standing by his convictions”. Again, nobody cares a hoot about Gabby who at age 47 is a walking skeleton and surely cannot survive just two days in jail if convicted of contempt and sentenced by the SC.
Egbert Faibille What type of judgement Egbert Faibille, one of the lawyers of the petitioners was expecting, only God knows. After expressing his displeasure with the judgment, Faibille went on to say that, “I believe sincerely that justice has not been served. Not because of where I am coming from, but I believe that we are lulling ourselves into a false sense of security.”
Did Egbert Faibille say we are comforting ourselves in a false sense of security? Is he threatening the nation? Does Faibille know something that we do not know? Indeed, these NPP folks claim they believe in the law courts but cannot take it when the courts do not go with them. The NPP folks only believe in the court only when it rules in their favour.
Egbert Faibille is a fine young lawyer. At least he has proven in court that he is far better than Gabby who we know could not pass his final law examination and had to be considered just like his cousin Akufo-Addo through some invisible hands. But for Faibille to grow up, he has to learn to accept defeats. It is not always about winning. You could be right today and wrong tomorrow. Therefore, this foolish posture by the NPP that everything about them is the right taste is simply baloney.
Sam Okudzeto The Vice President, Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, is entitled to his opinion on the verdict of the election petition just like any other full-blooded Ghanaian. Have you forgotten when Sam Okudzeto went on the rampage by stating that, “So my brothers and sisters, the law is quite clear. The law is laid down. Judgment will be given and whatever way it goes, we must all accept it. If you are holding office and they say you can no longer hold office because that is what the law says, what must you do? Accept it! That’s as simple as that. That is the only way we can live in peace and tranquillity.”
So what is Okudzeto’s beef if Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, after the judgement wondered why the judges were not unanimous in dismissing all the cases of irregularities brought before them? Is this something that Okudzeto has never heard before? Why jump on the Vice President out of frustration?
The law is laid down. Judgement has been given on the election petition case and the way it went was that President Mahama was validly elected. So Mr Okudzeto, we must all accept it. If you contest for the highest office of the land and they say you did not win the election because that is what the law says, what must you do? Mr Okudzeto, please accept it! That’s as simple as that. That is the only way Ghana can live in peace and tranquillity. Attacking people will not cut it; therefore, stop attacking Vice President Amissah-Arthur and Tsatsu Tsikata.
Malik Kweku Baako If I were Malik Kweku Baako, I will simply go away. Having deceived the NPP in the last two major elections with his bogus unscientific analysis, this man has no shame and is still at the backside of the NPP.
Kweku Baako is also peeved that Vice President stated that, “I‘ve never doubted that this will be the outcome…I‘m surprised that it wasn’t 9-0 9-0 throughout.” Baako, stated that the comment by the Vice President was ill-timed and in bad taste and went on to advice the Veep to concentrate his attention on national issues and avoid propaganda.
If you are asked today to just name one single individual in Ghana whose sheer propaganda work dwarfs the word propaganda itself, Kweku Baako will easily come to mind. This man is telling the Veep not to express his happiness because it was ill-timed. Ill-timed because Kweku Baako’s party has lost the petition, so the Vice President has no right to comment on the issue? When then is the best time for the Veep to express his feelings on the verdict?
If the time is not right, why then should Baako advice the Veep to concentrate on national issues? Will the concentration on national issues by the Veep at a time that the NPP has lost the petition case also not ill-timed?
Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie Do you remember the author of these words, “What hurts me most is that man that you call Atuguba, or Atu ... Atugubu, whoever, you say he is called what? I mean that judge, that your judge, that judge that you call Atugu... whatever, he oh he, he is funny That the Supreme Court had prepared mashed yam in palm oil and stuffed it with egg for Tsatsu Tsikata to eat."
“As a hypocritical joker who pampers the counsel for the National Democratic Congress, Tsatsu Tsikata, but habitually scolds the counsel for the NPP."
“That he frowned like a voodoo deity. Do they think we are stupid, you sit there and frown like a voodoo deity, when Addison is talking you shut him down and beat him with sticks but when it comes to Tsatsu, when he gets angry, you ask him apologetically if he is angry? Tsikata's cross-examination was for how many days, didn't' Atuguba and Co. see that the questions he was asking were nonsensical?"
"To the relatives of judges sitting on the election petition, if you have a relative who is on the panel go and tell him that you don't want a funeral on your hands, beg him to speak the truth. I know the judges, they will speak the truth, but there is one or two, one particular judge who opens his mouth at any time and the next thing you hear is a warning. I want him to know that he can't intimidate us. I have never heard him warn Mahama. The whole of Ghana has watched and seen that Justice Atuguba was trying to cheat the NPP, and yet he is telling us not to complain."
That was Kwadwo Afriyie then! Suddenly this man has turned a saint and punching Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, lead counsel for the NDC in the petition case, when he expressed his misgivings about Justice Anim Yeboah’s political leanings on the bench. You cannot believe this is the same man who was convicted by the SC for scandalizing it with those threatening and stupid comments.
Now hear what he said over the weekend, “The consistent attacks on the third arm of government by functionaries and surrogates of the NDC must cease. It is not helpful for our democratic dispensation to always tag a judge as belonging to one political party or another. It must stop.”
Indeed the attacks must stop, but the buck has never stopped at the desk of the NPP when they go wrong. It is always at the opposite end. I will only say God have mercy on Sir John.
Ayikoi Otoo This man is all over the place after he was able to save Sir John from going to jail when he scandalized the SC. Ayikoi Otoo does not understand why the Veep has every right under the sun the celebrate the NDC’s victory. Please read what Ayikoi Otoo said concerning the comments made by the Veep, “He was trying to impress but he overdid it. Generally, he has been a laid back gentleman and hasn’t been seen that much in public. All this while, we never saw him and some people think that maybe he couldn’t step into the big shoes of his boss”, he said.
What an insulting comment by Ayikoi Otoo! What was he expecting the Veep to do? Indeed these NPP folks are hallucinating. The loss at the SC is something they never expected which is why they put together a list of their cabinet ministers, ambassadorial and other key governmental appointments and even got their victory song ready before the SC verdict. We live to see how their denial mode will metamorphose into acceptance mode.
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