‘If your case is bad, even the most skillful General will be exposed’ – Oppong Nkrumah

A spokesperson for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo‘s legal team in the ongoing election petition hearing, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said Monday’s proceeding exposed the inconsistencies in the petition of John Mahama and his witness, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah.

According to him, Akoto Ampaw, lead counsel for Akufo-Addo in the election petition, exposed the inaccuracies and inconsistencies in Mahama’s petition.

In a post-trial media interview on Monday (1 February), Oppong Nkrumah stressed that the witness for the petitioner could not substantiate any of the evidence presented to the court by the petitioner as proof that the 2020 presidential election was flawed.

He noted that “we are of the view that today has been a big day in court and the big word today is ‘exposed’. You would notice that counsel on our side spent a lot of time exposing the inconsistencies and sometimes the outright falsehoods that have been put out by the petitioner (Mahama) and the witness who was in the witness box today.

“So when you juxtapose the earlier claims that we won and now what they are saying in the witness box to they now saying they don’t know who won, you will realize there’s a discrepancy… One of the first things that the counsel on our side sought to do today was to expose the inconsistencies and sometimes outright falsehood by the petitioner and the witness,” he added.

Background

The presidential candidate for the National Democratic Congress in the 2020 general election, John Dramani Mahama, officially filed a petition at the Supreme Court on 30 December 2020 to challenge the 7 December presidential election result.

A statement from the NDC after the filing said: “The National Democratic Congress wishes to inform the general public that at about 12 pm this afternoon [sic], the leader and presidential candidate of the party, H E John Dramani Mahama, caused his lawyers to file a petition in the Supreme Court of Ghana to challenge the 2020 presidential election results declaration by the chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Ghana.”

It added: “The petition was filed pursuant to the party‘s audit of the 2020 presidential results and extensive consultations with the National Executive Committee and Council of Elders of the party.”

According to the NDC, the petition details grave violations of the 1992 constitution by the Electoral Commission and its chairperson/returning officer for the presidential election, Jean Adukwei Mensa, in carrying out their constitutional and legal responsibilities.

It seeks, among other things, a declaration from the Supreme Court to the effect that the purported declaration of the results of the 2020 presidential election on 9 December 2020 is unconstitutional, null and void, and of no effect whatsoever.

On 9 December 2020, Jean Mensa declared President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo the president-elect, announcing that he had secured 51.3% of the valid votes cast. The result of the presidential election has since been gazetted. The NDC, however, says it cannot accept the result because it is “flawed”.