Former President John Mahama
The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) is demanding an unqualified apology from the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to Ghanaians and the Judiciary as well as the Electoral Commission (EC) for misleading them and creating unnecessary tension in the country post declaration of the 2020 election results
According to the governing party, the NDC wasted the precious time of Ghanaians during the 2020 election petition when the party was vividly aware it clearly lost the polls.
This followed a leaked viral audio in which the general secretary of the National Democratic Party (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketsiah, is alleged to have said that President John Mahama and the party challenged the 2020 presidential election results at the Supreme Court without any shred of evidence.
In the tape, Asiedu Nketiah was heard explaining to party faithful that the Director of IT failed to electronically collate the evidence the party needed to contest the outcome of the presidential election.
Consequently, the Director of Legal Affairs for NPP, Gary Nimako Marfo has admonished Mr. Asiedu Nketiah and the NDC to apologise.
According to him, the NDC knew they had no evidence but accused the court of being biased against them during the election petition.
“Post-election case, there have been comments here and there that the judges have been biased against them. When indeed you know from day one that you have no evidence at all.
“With this revelation having come out to the public domain, I think Ghanaians deserve an apology from the NDC, especially from former President Mahama to apologise to Ghanaians and the court because if they knew from day one that in fact, they had no evidence at all…yet they managed to go to court with the hope that they get Jean Mensa to mount the witness box and cross-examine her.”
“They really misled Ghanaians and their supporters and the way they treated the court. They have to eat the humble pie and apologise,” he said.
However, the Director of Legal Affairs of the NDC Abraham Amaliba has rejected the request of the NPP saying that the party will not apologise for the 2020 election petition.
He insisted that the party’s decision to contest the 2020 election results was justified, thus the demand for an apology is unnecessary.
“It is uncalled for, they are looking for a twin in the NDC, they can’t get that twin and no apology is going to come from anybody in the NDC,” he said.
The NDC filed an election petition after the 2020 general election accusing the Electoral Commission of stealing the election results for the NPP.
They alleged that NPP won the polls through vote padding, arithmetic and computational errors.
However, the Supreme Court gave the final verdict on March 4, 2021 in favor of President Akufo-Addo and ruled that the NDC had no basis for the petition.
By Vincent Kubi