Advertisement

Give me Bawumia’s calculator – Mosquito pleads

Johnson Asiedu Nketia, aka General Mosquito in a 'friendly fire' with his New Patriotic Party counterpart, Kwadwo Owusu AfriyieThere was prolonged laughter Thursday across the floor of the Supreme Court hearing the election petition when Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, witness for first and third respondents jokingly asked if he could be handed a calculator from the key witness for the petitioners.

Asiedu Nketiah, also known as General Mosquito, who is General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, had submitted an answer of 100 as the tally of ballots on a pink sheet when asked by his counsel to analyse a claim of over-voting until some murmuring on the floor tipped him off that something was amiss.

He quickly submitted that the answer should rather be 1,000, and added that perhaps he could use Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s calculator.

Bawumia is the second petitioner and key witness and just endured some 20 days of giving evidence and cross-examination during which he used the calculator.

Mosquito’s remark quickly sent the packed courtroom, including judges laughing, a situation made more lighthearted by his lead counsel, Tsatsu Tsikata, who put in humorously that he had thought that being a “village palm wine tapper” he did not know how to use a calculator. Mosquito had often referred to himself as a person from humble beginnings, including being a village palm wine tapper.

Asiedu Nketiah’s evidence Thursday centred mainly on how the petitioners had no basis going to court because the December 2012 elections were free and fair, a situation he said was affirmed by both international and local observers, including the petitioners themselves.

He said his position was evident in the fact throughout the country, there was no single complaint by agents of the petitioners way of accepted procedure, and that their protestations started long after the polls had been declared.

His accused the petitioners of bad faith saying they have been changing allegations about the alleged irregularities and malpractices which they claim accounted for their defeat and for which they went to court.

“My Lords after the close of polls, the representatives of the NPP started indicating, in fact before the close of polls, that there were malpractices and this happened after the same representatives have come out to claim the results were free and fair and that nobody should come out to challenge the outcomes and that the second respondent should be allowed to do their work without fear or favour.

"Then not long after that there were other press statements indicating that there were malpractices all over and that the results were not acceptable, I believe this came when it became evident that the NPP and first petitioner was losing the elections”.

"Then after that I remember the claim they made at the first respondent office (Electoral Commission) were contained in this document. Then subsequent to that they came out after the declaration also making other claims that were substantially different from any other claims they have made in the past including the allegation that voting took place outside the country and that the external votes were inflated by more than 200,000 votes".

He said later on, that claim was dropped and they (petitioners) started claiming that the results have been padded and that some numbers were added to President Mahama’s tally to make him victorious.

Mr Asiedu Nketiah said it went on for some time before the changed their claims to swapping of results and claims that the first petitioner's tally was swapped for the first respondent.

“So they kept changing the claims and my Lords even in this courtroom we have witnessed the changing of claim for each passing day.

“My Lords when we came here first they claimed some 28 polling stations didn’t exist, later on they changed that number to 22 and later tried to change to 23 and then the number of polling stations in issue, they began claiming 4,000 plus then it was 11,900 plus, then it came back to 11,840 and now I think the latest figure is 11,138 or something. I don’t know whether they will change it before the verdict."

On the petitioners various categorisation, the witness said, “today they will say we have 26, the following day it comes to 24 and that one also keeps changing and My Lords on the floor of this courtroom they declared they have no problem and haven’t alleged any fraud involving the first and third respondents meanwhile the case began with allegations against the first respondent.

“So the case keeps on changing.”

He disputed claims by the petitioners that there were widespread irregularities, ghost polling stations, widespread voting without biometric verification and insisted that polling stations were not identified by serial numbers on pink sheets.

Hearing resumes on May 28, 2013.


Story by Graphic.com.gh

Connect With Us : 0242202447 | 0551484843 | 0266361755 | 059 199 7513 |