Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has revealed details about the events surrounding the 2020 presidential election results collation.
According to Nketiah, the departure of NDC agents from the Electoral Commission's Strong Room was not voluntary but under strict instructions, following an agreement with the National Peace Council.
In a video available to GhanaWeb, recorded during a recent meeting with some members of the NDC, Asiedu Nketiah shed light on a meeting proposed by the Peace Council to resolve rising tensions and discrepancies observed during the collation process.
The meeting, he said, was scheduled to take place at Movenpick Hotel and was to include all stakeholders, aiming to ensure that the final election results reflected the people's will.
"...So the Peace Council agreed to organize a meeting between the NDC, NPP, international delegations, and the Electoral Commission. We don't want anything; we just wanted to check the pink sheets. So if we put the pink sheets together and they have won, we will agree.
"We even have the Eastern Region where the results that were collated in Koforidua were different from the results they brought to Accra. So we brought all these things and said that we are not going to wait to go to court.
"Let the international observers sit around the table, we will sit there, the NPP will sit there, the Peace Council will sit; like we did in 2008 with Afari Gyan, and when we verify the figures, whoever emerges, we will concede," he said.
He noted that the Peace Council agreed to the NDC's demand and left former President Mahama's office with the assurance of making arrangements for the said meeting.
"They thanked us and said they were going to arrange the meeting. So they went and told the international observers, and they fixed a meeting at Movenpick at 2 pm that all of us will meet there.
"Then we said okay, that being the case, the Peace Council should go around and talk to everyone. They should even go to the Electoral Commission and tell the chairperson of the Electoral Commission, and then they will talk to our representation at the strong room so that at 2 o'clock we will all stop the collation and then go and sit at Movenpick to continue the collation there.
"So when the Peace Council informed everybody, they all said that they agreed with the 2 o'clock meeting. That was where our people at the Electoral Commission left the place to come so that we could prepare for the meeting because everybody understands that the collation will be stopped so that we go and continue from wherever we have reached," he added.
However, the NDC was taken aback when, upon their agents' departure from the Strong Room, the NPP allegedly pressured the EC Chairperson, Jean Mensa, to declare results in their favour.
"Immediately we got this understanding and we were preparing, the NPP met Jean Mensa, and they pressured her to go and do the collation and announce. So our people did not leave there on their own. It was part of an arrangement with the National Peace Council that let us down," he stated.
According to the National Chairman, the NDC's refusal to congratulate President Nana Akufo-Addo for being declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election stems from these events, as Nketiah accuses the Peace Council of orchestrating confusion.
The situation escalated to the extent that gunshots were reported at former President Mahama's office, fueled by frustration over perceived deception by the Peace Council.
"...the matter is what I have disclosed because it started with us at President Mahama's office, and it was the Peace Council people who came to create that confusion.
"So later, when they wanted to come back to that office, in fact, our boys from Odododiodioo, they were furious; there were gunshots in President Mahama's office because they felt that we had been misled by the Peace Council. So that is the truth of the matter," he stated.
Asiedu Nketiah also criticized the NPP's courtroom tactics, which he claims were designed to distract from the core issues, including their refusal to have Jean Mensa testify.
The focus on trivialities like tea offered to NDC agents was, according to him, a ploy to divert attention from the substantive matters of the trial.
The circumstances that led to the NDC agents' exit from the EC head office were a point of contention during the 2020 election petition trial.
However, according to Asiedu Nketiah, the Peace Council's actions significantly impacted the coherence of their case and the subsequent legal proceedings.
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