Robert Joseph Mettle-Nunoo, the third witness in the ongoing election petition before the Supreme Court will be cross-examined today by counsel for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and that of the Electoral Commission (EC) respectively.
Mr Mettle-Nunoo and Dr Michael Kpessa-Whyte, a lecturer at the University of Ghana represented former President John Dramani Mahama in the National Collation Centre also known as the “strong room.”
President Mahama is challenging the declaration of President Akufo-Addo as the winner of the 2020 presidential election.
Mr Mettle-Nunoo’s witness statement had been adopted by the apex court last Friday after hours of legal arguments between counsel for the petitioner, Mr Tsatsu Tsikata and those of the respondents, Mr Akoto Ampaw and Justin Amenuvor regarding portions of the witness statement which, according to the lawyers, were not pleaded by the petitioner in the petition.
Messrs Ampaw and Amenuvor respectively urged the court to expunge 23 out of the 32 paragraphs in the witness statement but the court removed only five paragraphs in the witness statement.
The witness had stated that he was misled by officials of the Electoral Commission(EC) into signing the regional collation sheet for the Ashanti Region.
According to him, he was made to sign the collation sheet because there was a signature of the agent of President John Dramani Mahama, the petitioner who is challenging the declaration of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as the winner of the 2020 election.
The witness stated that “I later found out from speaking with officials at the party headquarters that what had been presented on the signed collation form was not consistent with a tally of polling station results in the Ashanti Region.”
Apart from that, Mr Mettle-Nunoo said that he and his colleagues on many occasions, pointed out errors in figures and words on the sheets that were brought which ultimately affected totals and unsigned results.
The witness said “this sometimes led EC officials making phone calls on the basis of which they sought to explain and correct some of the things we pointed out. I cannot tell to whom those calls were made. I cannot tell if the calls were to EC officials or to some other people who were also involved in collation processes. There was no transparent process in this regard,” the witness added.
BACKGROUND
Former President Mahama has urged the Supreme Court to annul the results of the December polls as none of the candidates who contested the election obtained the required 50 percent plus one of the total votes cast.
Mr Mahama is also asking the Apex Court for an order of injunction restraining Nana Akufo-Addo from holding himself out as President-elect.
Again, the former President wants the court to order the Electoral Commission to organise a second election with himself and Nana Akufo-Addo as the only two candidates..
In his response, counsel for President Nana Akufo-Addo, Mr Akoto Ampaw described the petition as incompetent, devoid of substance and does not measure up to the legal criteria or an action invoking the jurisdiction of the apex court under article 64(1) of the Constitution, 1992.
He said the petition was merely conjectural and born out of petitioner’s unfounded imagination, and that the material facts in the petition do not support the reliefs being sought.
Mr Ampaw argued that the election petition does not disclose any attack on the validity of the election held throughout the 38,622 polling stations and 311 special voting centres.
BY MALIK SULLEMANA
