Robert Joseph Mettle Nunoo
Lawyers for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the Electoral Commission (EC) will today take their turns to cross-examine Robert Joseph Mettle Nunoo, popularly called Rojo, via a video link in the ongoing Presidential Election Petition filed by former President John Dramani Mahama at the Supreme Court.
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate filed the petition against the EC and President Akufo-Addo, who was declared winner of the December 7, 2020 Presidential Election, insisting that no candidate crossed the 50% plus one mark needed for a candidate to become President-elect.
When filing the petition, Mr. Mahama had said he was going to call five witnesses but ended up bringing only two namely – Johnson Asiedu Nketia, who is the NDC’s General Secretary, and Dr. Michael Kpessa-Wyhte, who was one of the petitioner’s representatives at the EC’s National Collation Centre, aka Strongroom during the counting of the ballots that were eventually declared on December 9, 2020.
The EC Chairperson, Mrs. Jean Adukwei Mensa, was set to testify after the two witnesses of Mr. Mahama had concluded their cross-examination last week, when Tsatsu Tsikata, lead counsel for the petitioner, last Wednesday, told the court the petitioner intended to bring in another witness, a move which was technically against the pre-trial settlement rules.
Mr. Tsikata then informed the court that the witness was suffering from some health complications, and added that if given the opportunity to file a witness statement, the witness could help bring some pertinent evidence and facts to help Mr. Mahama to make his case.
It later turned out that the witness was Rojo, who was the other NDC representatives at the EC Strongroom; and the statement was duly filed late Thursday, with the leave of the court.
Pruning Statement
At the hearing last Friday, the seven-member panel of judges presided over by Chief Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah struck out portions of Rojo’s witness statement, which he intended to rely on to support former President Mahama’s case.
The trimming of the witness statement was a result of objections raised by lawyers for the second respondent, President Akufo-Addo, who argued that the aspects of the statement did not conform to laid down rules and procedures.
Rojo, who is former President Mahama’s third witness in the ongoing election petition, will not be appearing in court due to ill health and is set to testify via video link as arranged by the court last Friday.
No Influence
At the last sitting on Friday, February 5, 2021, few minutes after the case was called, Akoto Ampaw, lead counsel for President Akufo-Addo, raised concerns about the absence of a judicial officer to monitor the witnesses to ensure that there was no other person in the room feeding Rojo with information during the cross examination.
Mr. Tsikata responded that provisions could be made as it would not take more than 30 minutes for an officer of the Judicial Service to be sent the location of the witness, which counsel refused to disclose in public.
The court had to stand down the case while the Registrar of the Supreme Court was designated to do so and upon reaching the witness, swore him in before the proceedings continued.
The lawyers were, however, unable to cross-examine the witness on Friday due to objections raised against aspects of the witness statement which they wanted the court to expunge from the records due to the fact that they said it had no relevance.
Trimmed Statement
The court after listening to hours of argument from Mr. Tsikata who was defending the statement and the initial brief objections raised by the respondents, struck out five out of the 32 paragraphs of the witness statement as having no foundations in the pleadings of the petitioner.
The affected paragraphs (4, 5, 6, 7 and 18) related to the constitutional mandate of the Chairperson of the EC, who is the returning officer for the presidential election.
The witness also made references to a video documentary person who was capturing events in the Strongroom and again claims about challenges with the fax machines, printers and computers that were provided in the EC Strongroom.
Retained Paragraphs
The court, however, maintained the remaining paragraphs which would be the subject of cross-examination by lawyers for the respondents today.
The witness in those paragraphs claims among others that the processes leading to the collation and declaration of the presidential election results were not in conformity with laid down rules.
He also claimed that he was “misled” by officials of the EC to sign the collated results from the Ashanti Region, which they had issues with.
Rojo stated that the EC officials had told him that once his colleague regional representative had signed the collation form, the only reprieve left for him was to go to court to challenge it.
“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 (Mr. Mahama) at the regional collation centre on that sheet,” he claimed.
Office ‘Visit’
He also stated that he had gone to the office of the Chairperson of the EC to bring to her attention that what was going on in the Strongroom could not lead to a declaration of the results by her at the end of the day as she had promised the country.
“She actually told me, in response, that the concerns I had raised were genuine and she would have them looked into,” the witness averred.
He also stated that there were challenges with some of the regional summary sheets presented to them in the Strongroom and the one published on the EC’s websites.
He stated, for instance, “In respect of Greater Accra, we observed that the total votes given to the petitioner, which was meant to be based on the sum of all constituency votes, on the face of the regional summary sheets presented, was less than the actual total. We also observed that the regional summary sheet published by the EC while the process was ongoing had different figures compared to the one given to us in National Collation Centre.”
He also indicated that he made a mistake when he signed the regional summary sheet for the Northern Region, which was not signed by the regional representative of the NDC, who gave a reason for not signing it.
Rojo continued that it was in light of the different regional certification processes and the posture of the EC officials in the Strongroom that he sought audience with the Chairperson of the EC.
‘Errand Boys’
Rojo also indicated in his witness statement that he and his colleague, Dr. Kpessa-Whyte, had been “sent to convey a message to the petitioner” by the Chairperson of the EC after he had spoken to her about the challenges with some of the summary sheets from the regions.
“My colleague and I only left the premises of the EC at the instance of the Chairperson of the EC to go and meet with the petitioner,” he said.
He stated that he and Dr. Kpessa-Whyte were shocked when they reached Mr. Mahama’s residence and realized the EC Chairperson was in the process of declaring the results of the 2020 Presidential Election.
“Petitioner naturally asked how this was possible when the same person had sent us with a message for him,” he noted in the witness statement.
He added that he later attempted to reach the Chairperson of the EC but all her phones were turned off.
The “showdown” at the Supreme Court is expected to commence at about 9:30 am today.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak