Election petition: Asiedu Nketia to testify for Mahama in court today
The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketia is expected to mount the witness box today, Friday, January 29, 2021, to testify for the presidential election petitioner, John Dramani Mahama.
This was indicated by one of the spokespersons for Mr. Mahama’s legal team, Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe. According to him, Mr. Asiedu Nketia is ready to mount the box. Mr. Asiedu Nketia and Michael Kpessa-Whyte, a former Executive Director of the National Service Secretariat, are the witnesses for Mr. Mahama in the ongoing case at the Supreme Court.
Mr Nketia, who will be testifying on behalf of the 2020 flagbearer of his party had earlier submitted his witness statement to the apex court. In his statement, the outspoken politician alleged that the EC Chairperson, Jean Mensa was biased in the execution of her role relating to the December 7, election. Johnson Asiedu Nketia claims her bias stemmed from her “close familial relationship” with the wife of the second respondent, Rebecca Akufo-Addo.
Mr Nketia insists in his testimony that this alleged bias by the EC Chairperson is contrary to Article 296 of the Constitution which requires public officers not to be biased. He explained that when the EC Chairperson discovered that her December 9, declaration was in error, she should have been fair and set aside the entire declaration and involve political parties in making the corrections instead of issuing statements.
The lack of involvement of the political parties he states showed a clear lack of transparency and a quest to cook up figures to achieve a pre-determined outcome that had nothing to do with the actual votes cast in the presidential election. After dismissing an application for a review on Thursday, January 28, 2021, the Supreme Court said it will be moving to the substantive hearing of the petition filed by Mr. Mahama and asked the counsel for the petitioner to make available their witness.
