Johnson Asiedu Nketia
General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Aseidu Nketia has posited that his party’s joinder application was meant to expose New Patriotic Party’s (NPP’s) lies and hypocrisy in the just ended polls.
According to him, the NPP’s petition filed at the Supreme Court is so hollow that the NDC as an interested party needs to join in order to shame them.
The Supreme Court on Thursday indefinitely adjourned a hearing of the preliminary joinder application filed by the NDC to a petition brought by the NPP challenging the 2012 presidential election results.
The adjournment was occasioned by an objection raised by the NPP to the Supreme Court panel. The counsel for the petitioners have since rescinded their decision. However, political actors mentioned Justice William Atuguba as the one who was opposed by the NPP.
Though the NDC explained that it filed the joinder application as an interested party in the case, the NPP believed it is an attempt to stall the speedy hearing of the petition.
The presidential candidate of the NPP in the 2012 elections, Nana Akufo-Addo, is also opposed to the request by the NDC to be joined in a petition challenging the results of the polls, reiterating that it is an attempt to delay the process.
However, speaking on Asempa fm’s current affairs Talkshow, Ekosii-Sen on Friday, Johnson Asiedu Nketia rubbished the assertion from the opposition noting that its application is to rather help speed up the process by exposing the NPP at the court.
General Mosquito, as he is affectionately called, asserted that the NPP who filed the petition at the Supreme Court has no incontrovertible evidence as it claimed that is why it started raising objections in order to stall the process.
“We believe the NPP has no evidence so we wanted to join the case in order to expose them to the whole world. When you look at what they presented as evidence at the Supreme Court, it is full of hypocrisy and lies so we will certainly be there to expose them. We are being accused of wanting to stall the speedy outcome of the whole issue but I want to state here that it is a lie. It is the NPP rather that wants to stall the process by raising objections because they have no evidence to back their assertion that the election was rigged”.
He described as shocking the objection raised by the NPP legal team at the Supreme Court over the composition of the justices on the case, noting that it is in a bad taste for Ghana’s democracy.
“In fact Thursday was a very bad day for me due to the NPP behaviour at the court. I didn’t like the way they behave because I thought we were going there to join and start the case but the NPP’s first objection shows it lacked evidence to prosecute the case.”
The NDC scribe also questioned the rationale behind the NPP legal team seeking to raise their objection at the court in private.
“I thought the court was about law and evidence. So NPP who were calling for television cameras at the Supreme Court could make a u-turn wanting their objection raised in private? I am shocked and grieved. Don’t they want transparency again? I think they are not being truthful to Ghanaians. This is the hypocrisy of the NPP and we will certainly expose them in court when granted the permission.”
He took a swipe at the legal team of the NPP for not knowing that any objection raised at the court must be in the form of motion. “NPP sent about 23 lawyers to the Supreme Court but I am surprised they didn’t know that when you are raising an objection, it should be in a form of a motion. The NPP have a case to prove but are now dragging with unnecessary objections with lawyers who don’t know the rules of the game.”
He warned the NPP against deliberately impeding the speedy process of the case with unnecessary objections noting that Ghanaians are eager to get to the bottom of the case.
He posited that what is militating against the progress of NPP is logic and mathematics so the party must assiduously work on that in order to do better in the next election. “The NPP has problem with logic and mathematics so if it want to win election in Ghana again, then it must work on these”.