Gloria Akuffo: We Will Do Whatever It Takes To Hasten Court Proceedings

A leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) legal team, Madam Gloria Akuffo, says had it not been the brouhaha over pink sheets and the exact number filed by the Petitioners and served on the Respondents which appears to have elongated the election petition trial, the case would have concluded a long time ago since both counsels have thoroughly cross-examined principal witnesses for both sides.

She has therefore given the assurance that the petitioners will do everything at their disposal to speed up proceedings so Ghanaians can heave a sigh of relief and get to hear the final determination of the case by the nine panel member adjudicating on the 2012 presidential election challenge.

Lawyer Gloria Akuffo however failed to give any specific time-frame she believes the trial might come to an end, but avers that hopefully, it will be soon.

“Our (NPP counsel) wish is to see the fast movement of the case (election petition) so it will come to an end, but this pink sheet issues are delaying matters. The interrogation of the pink sheet issues is really drawing us back. Because of that, I cannot categorically say when the case will come to an end but what I can say is that, we the NPP counsel will do whatever it takes to accelerate the case,” she assured.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to grant a request by the petitioners praying the court to refer issues on 1,545 pink sheets to the international audit firm, KPMG, for further consideration.

The court, however, gave the petitioners the nod to cross-examine the Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, on the said pink sheets.

Following the exclusion of the 1,545 pink sheets in the final analysis of the KPMG report, the petitioners had prayed the court to grant their request in order to establish a comprehensive unique count of pink sheets they had filed, but the respondents objected to the request on the grounds that the petitioners’ request was not part of the original task of the KPMG.

But speaking on OKAY FM, Madam Gloria Akufo insisted that the refusal of their request “will not deter the petitioners counsel from asking question on pink sheets. The Judges said we can identify some code numbers and based on that we can still ask our questions.”