Election Petition: John Mahama’s team wanted to delay hearing with interrogatories – Oppong Nkrumah

One of President Nana Akufo-Addo’s spokespersons for the election petition, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has insisted that the legal team of John Dramani Mahama attempted to delay the hearing of the case with its interrogatories application.

The lawyers for John Mahama had applied to the Supreme Court to serve 12 interrogatories on the Electoral Commission (EC).

Mr. Mahama was seeking to compel the EC to provide answers to questions known in legal parlance as interrogatories.

The said interrogatories included the manner in which the results of the 2020 presidential polls were transmitted and the level of involvement of the National Communications Authority (NCA) in the process.

However, the lawyers for the Electoral Commission and the President opposed the application.

They argued that John Mahama and his legal team were using the “back door” to seek further information from the EC that were not captured in their petition.

Mr. Akoto Ampaw, the lawyer for the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, described the application as a “fishing expedition”.

The Supreme Court in a unanimous decision dismissed the application.

“John Mahama’s legal team attempted to delay the process with an application for leave to serve interrogatories on the EC. It was shot down because the questions were irrelevant,” Mr. Oppong Nkrumah stated on his official Twitter page after the pre-trial hearing today, Tuesday, January 19, 2021.

The case was subsequently adjourned to tomorrow, Wednesday, January 20, 2021, for case management.