Marietta Appiah-Oppong admit NDC’s 2020 election documents not complete

The spokesperson for the Petitioners, in the ongoing Presidential Election Petition, Ms Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, has said they do not have in their custody all the documents they seek to inspect from the Electoral Commission.

The lawyers for the petitioner had earlier filed a motion to inspect presidential results documents used by the EC in reaching the results the Chairperson Jean Mensa announced on January 9,2020.

The request was however, dismissed by the Court on Wednesday, February 3, with reasons of of which was that the petitioners had all the documents in the their custody.

Ms Appiah-Oppong, addressing the media in a post-trial interview, said the Petitioner, former President John Dramani Mahama disagreed with the Supreme Court ruling on the fact that all the documents they sought were in their custody and therefore they were not entitled to it.

She explained the application was also to find out from the Electoral Commission, (EC) who is the First Respondent, the basis for the different corrections they had made.

She said the EC has come up with different figures and the Petitioner does not know the basis for which they came up with those figures and therefore they ought to see the original of those documents to be able to make their own assessment before they cross-examined the Commission’s witness.

The former Attorney General said unfortunately, the Supreme Court did not agree with their request and refuse their application on the grounds that these were documents that were in their custody.

She said the Court has ruled and there was not much they could do but to disagree.

She said their two witnesses who have testified in the Court so far have said the FORM 13 that was being talked about was never sighted by them, and that there was at least one document they do not have in their custody.

She said this is the most important document.

She said they have made it clear that the agents for the Petitioner were not part of whatever discussions that were held at the EC when the different corrections were made and therefore they need to see the basis for which those corrections were made.

She said despite the dismissal of the application by the Court the petitioner’s case does not end there and that they will still continue with the trial.

She said, we still think we have a very strong case, we are very certain about the case we have before the court irrespective of the fact that our applications are being refused?.
Madam Appiah-Oppong said they came to Court very prepared.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a motion filed by the Counsel for the Petitioner seeking an order to inspect documents from the EC.

The motion on notice concerns some original documents regarding Presidential Results Collation Forms with originals of all Constituency Presidential Election Results Collation Forms and Summary Sheets of all constituencies in Ghana.

The Court presided over by Chief Justice Kwesi Anin Yeboah in its ruling said the proceedings so far show that the petitioner has copies of the documents which were the subject of the application.

He said the applicant has not demonstrated that he has no copies of the documents in question and in fact it was recorded that Mr. Johnson Aseidu Nketia and Dr. Michael Kpessa-Whyte have admitted that the Petitioner has.

Former President Mahama has filed a petition at the Supreme Court seeking an annulment of the Presidential Election results and a re-run of the election between him and Nana Akufo-Addo who is the second respondent in the Petition.

The Petitioner is also seeking an injunction directing the first Respondent, the EC to proceed to conduct a second election between the Petitioner and the second respondent as candidates, as required under Articles 63 (4) and (5) of the 1992 constitution.
The trial has been adjourned to Friday, February 5 for continuation.

Source: GNA