ELECTION 2020 PETITION: Mettle Nunoo Files Additional Witness Statement In Support Of Mahama
Petitioner in the ongoing election 2020 petition at the Supreme Court has filed an additional witness statement ahead of court sitting tomorrow, Friday the 5th of February 2021, which will be the 11th hearing since the petition was filed on the 30th of December 2020.
The witness according to the nine-paged statement filed at the Registry of the Supreme Court at 3:00pm today the 4th of February 2021, is Robert Joseph Mettle Nunoo, a senior member of the Petitioner’s political party (National Democratic Congress, NDC) and one of two persons who represented the Petitioner (John Dramani Mahama), at the National Collation Centre of the EC for the 7th of December 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections.
The thirty-two (32) paragraph witness statement signed by Robert Joseph Mettle Nunoo, among others, states in paragraph seven (7) that “instead of that pre-arranged transmission system for the regional collation sheets to be transmitted to the head office of the Electoral Commission, what happened part of the time was that one of the Deputy Directors of the EC, Dr. Sereboe Quaicoe, would, from time to time, bring into the strong room what was claimed to be a regional collation sheet. How he got that sheet was not disclosed”.
“My colleague, Dr. Kpessa-Whyte and I, on many occasions, pointed out errors in figures and words on the sheets that were brought in which ultimately affected totals and assigned results. This sometimes led to 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 phone 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 statement says in paragraph eight (8).
The witness further states in paragraph 11, “I must admit I was misled by this position of the EC officials into signing the regional collation sheet for the Ashanti Region simply because there was a signature of the agent of the Petitioner at the Regional Collation Centre on that sheet. 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”.
The witness further stated in paragraph twenty-nine (29) “…yet my colleague and I realized with shock, on our reaching the residence of the Petitioner, that the EC Chairperson was in the process of announcing results. Petitioner naturally asked how this was possible when the same person had sent us with a message for him”.
“Attempts I made to reach the Chairperson of the EC by telephone for clarification proved futile as she had turned off her phones. Clearly, the EC Chairperson had not been transparent and truthful and had taken advantage of the absence of the two representatives of the Petitioner to make a premature and unconstitutional declaration. She acted with extreme bad faith, unfairly, unreasonably and with no regard for due process,” the witness added in paragraph thirty (30) of his witness statement.
The last paragraph, thirty-two (32) of the witness statement states, “I have known that a declaration has to be transparent and the result must be justified by facts, figures and a transparent tally and collation of results. Clear errors, as have been admitted by the EC in these elections, undermine the credibility of the poll and also cast grave doubt on the integrity of those assigned responsibilities for the free, fair and transparent conduct of elections. It is impossible to sweep these matters under the carpet”.
The witness ends his statement with, “I Robert Joseph Mettle-Nunoo, say that I am the Witness herein and that I made this statement in respect of this Presidential Election Petition, and that to the best of my knowledge and honest belief, paragraphs 1-16 of the Witness Statement is true to the best of my knowledge, information or belief”.
With the court set to reconstitute tomorrow, Friday the 5th of February 2021, it is expected that Mr. Mettle Nunoo will be led by lawyers of the Petitioner to present his evidence to the court and will be cross-examined by lawyers of the Respondents, Justin Amenuvor for the EC and Akoto Ampaw, for the Second Respondent (President Akufo-Addo). The Petitioner has so far called two witnesses, Johnson Aseidu Nketia, General Secretary of the NDC and Dr. Michael Kpessa Whyte, leading member of the NDC and one of two persons who represented the Petitioner at the National Collation Centre of the EC for the 2020 general election. Mr. Joseph Robert Mettle Nunoo may well be the third and last witness of the Petitioner in the instant action.
By Wilberforce Asare
