Election petition: We complied with Jean Mensa’s request to go see Mahama in good faith – Kpessa-Whyte
The second witness for the petitioner in the ongoing election petition hearing has told the Supreme Court that they complied with the request by the EC Chair before leaving the national collation centre.
Dr Michael Kpessa-Whyte said together with his colleague, Rojo Mettle-Nunoo, were asked by Jean Mensa to go and see the 2020 NDC presidential candidate, John Mahama, prior to the declaration of the results of the December polls.
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The senior lecturer at the University of Ghana and member of the NDC, made this comment during cross-examination by lead counsel for the First Respondent, Justin Amenuvor.
According to him, they left only to realise the EC boss’ instruction was meant to lure them out of the national collation centre so she can announce the results.
He noted that as one of the petitioner’s representatives in EC’s national collation centre, they noticed many irregularities during the collation process to which they drew the EC’s attention.
According to him, when he drew the attention of Mrs Mensa she asked them to go and consult with their flagbearer [Mahama] on the irregularities they had raised. They took this “instruction” in good faith and left the room.
We only left on the instructions of the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission who happens to be the Returning Officer. And we did so because in the performance of our duties as a representative of the petitioner we observed a number of issues of concern to us which had the potential of undermining or creating problems for the ultimate outcome of the elections”.
Although he admitted to not having received the said “instructions” from the EC Chairperson directly, he added that they “had no reason not to believe she was acting in good faith only for us to realise we were deceived into getting out of the place”.
He further revealed that Mrs Mensa assured them that she would wait for their return before the results of the presidential election was declared.
However, Dr Kpessa-Whyte, told the apex court that upon leaving, Jean Mensa declared the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Akufo-Addo as President-elect.
“She said she will make sure that she sends a rider to bring us back to the strongroom (national collation centre) because of the potential of traffic, then, therefore, when we finish the process then the results would be announced,”
Indeed we returned to the place in about 45 minutes to 1 hour only to have the strongroom completely deserted with everything packed out,” he added.
Source: MyJoyOnline.com
