General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress, Johnson Asiedu Nketia has ascribed the recent arrest of two officials of the Savelugu District Electoral Commission to machinations of the opposition New Patriotic Party who he says are plotting to “fake” their documents by hook or crook.
He believes strongly that the opposition party influenced the EC officers to get the pink sheets signed in order to contradict the electoral results provided by the EC.
Three officers of the Savelugu District Electoral Commission were on Sunday, apprehended by the Northern Regional Police Command for conniving and allegedly bribing Presiding officers in the December 2012 Elections to sign unsigned Pink Sheets, two months after the polls.
The arrest of two of the accused, a National Service personnel at the Commission, Miss Salamatu Osman and Amani Benjamin Akandi, the Savelugu/Nantong Electoral Officer, was as a result of a vigilant action by members of the Savelugu constituency NPP who claim to have picked intelligence on the ongoing validation of the unsigned pink sheets.
Narrating the incident on Peace FM, Fila FM’s Kwabena Ntow said the NPP group which effected a citizen’s arrest claim to have seized fifteen (15) of the pink sheets, some of which had just been validated and others which were in the process of being validated.
According to him, the National Service personnel confessed to the act of getting Presiding officers to validate their unsigned pink sheets on the orders of the Savelugu/Nantong District Electoral officer who was subsequently apprehended by members of the NPP.
The NPP believes the suspects were charged to cover up the massive irregularities which affected the conduct and outcome of the December polls, for which reason the party is praying the Supreme Court to overturn the election of President John Mahama.
But Asiedu Nketia, popularly called General Mosquito, expressed doubts about the NPP’s own credibility in accusing the NDC of plotting to disturb the outcome of the December 7 and 8 2012 presidential election.
According to him, the arrest has revealed the hidden motives of the opposition party whom he said will go to every length to delegitimize the President of the Republic.
Speaking in an interview on Okay FM Monday morning, Asiedu Nketia said the NPP loyalists are only tickling themselves by levelling allegations against the governing NDC, but said their attempts will end in futility.
“We won’t sit down for the NPP to machinate a plot, to ensnare the Electoral Commission, and so use it as basis to annul the electoral results. If it (the electoral outcome) is annulled, it will affect the NDC because we are the victors.”
He continued; “If what happened had not been thwarted by some people, but had the papers(pink sheets)being signed, it would have meant that the papers that the parties possess would be different from the copies brought to the Electoral Commission in Accra. Then, the court might rule against the Electoral Commission. When the elections are annulled, who suffers? Is it not the NDC?”
“If somebody works under the cover of darkness and manipulate an Electoral Commission official to forcibly sign it. When it is signed and presented, it will contradict the copies that the parties have. When such thing happens, that will form the basis for the court to say that the Electoral Commission’s results are fraud; so, it should be nullified. When it is invalidated, is it not the NDC that suffers?”
He therefore questioned the NPP for blaming the NDC when any move to sign the unsigned pink sheets would invariably affect the legitimacy of President John Mahama and also the NDC’s victory in the 2012 December polls.
“Why would someone do this and you blame the NDC when you know that any nullification of the election will affect the NDC? Why do you shift the blame on the NDC? I cannot understand why we would do something to nullify the elections; for you (NPP) to rejoice,” he queried.