General News of Wednesday, 17 April 2013
Source: peacefmonline
Editor-In-Chief of the New Crusading Guide, Kweku Baako Jnr, has slated the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, for describing lawyers for the petitioners in the on-going election suit in unsavoury terms.
“The mischief Asiedu Nketia represents and yesterday (Tuesday) articulated is ridiculous,” Kweku Baako opined.
The NDC General Secretary likened the conduct of the legal team representing the NPP in the election petition suit filed at the Supreme Court to “some JSS pupils who are not ready to write examination and they want to get answers before they ask their question”.
Lead Counsel for the petitioners, Philip Addison, had argued in court that they had not received any of the reported 7,000 affidavits of the first respondent, President John Mahama.
The second respondent, the Electoral Commission, was also yet to file sworn affidavits of their witnesses as at 1pm Tuesday.
Thus, he prayed the court to stay proceedings till they had been furnished with the evidence since it would be unfair to proceed with their case.
The nine-member panel granted the request of the petitioners and adjourned proceedings but not before directing the respondents to adhere to what the court had earlier agreed on and furnish the petitioners with evidence.
But speaking to the media shortly after adjournment of proceedings at the Supreme Court, Asiedu Nketia claimed to be flummoxed at the conduct of the petitioners’ legal team since they had created the impression that they were ready.
“I thought they were ready. They are running away from their own case. You don’t wait to receive answers before you ask your question. They are behaving like some JSS pupils who are not ready to write examination and they want to get answers before they ask their question,” General Mosquito said.
Contributing to a panel discussions on Peace FM on Wednesday, Kweku Baako described the utterances of General Mosquito as “ridiculous, driven by a certain level of ineptitude. I won’t say intellectual dishonesty. It was obvious…the court was being consistent by asking the EC to file their affidavits”.
According to him, the respondents (NDC lawyers) had an agenda during yesterday’s proceedings at the Supreme Court and that was why they were pushing the petitioners to go on even though the EC had not filed their affidavits, adding ‘that was the same thing Asiedu Nketia said’.
“The whole thing began with Tsatsu Tsikata insisting that the petitions should go on; it was a strategy meant for sound bites and propaganda mongers out there. So that they will say that the petitioners were not able and were afraid…it was so obvious. I was so happy there was live broadcast because straight away, you could see the mischief that he was putting out. You could see that it was a false presentation that he was giving,” Kweku Baako added.