The petitioner in the Election 2020 petition at the Supreme Court has filed an additional witness statement in the lead-up to the court sitting tomorrow, Friday 5 February 2021, which will be the 11th hearing since the petition was filed on 30 December 2020.
The witness, according to the nine-page witness statement filed at the Supreme Court registry at 3pm today (4 February 2021), will be Robert Joseph Mettle-Nunoo, a senior member of the petitioner’s political party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Mettle-Nunoo is one of two people who represented the petitioner (John Dramani Mahama) at the National Collation Centre during vote-counting for Election 2020 tallying results for the 7 December presidential and parliamentary elections.
The 32-paragraph witness statement signed by Mettle-Nunoo states in paragraph seven, among other things: “Instead of that prearranged transmission system for the regional collation sheets to be transmitted to the head office of the Electoral Commission, what happened part of the time was that one of the EC’s deputy directors, Dr Sereboe Quaicoe, would, from time to time, bring into the Strong Room what was claimed to be a regional collation sheet. How he got that sheet was not disclosed.
“My colleague, Dr Kpessa-Whyte, and I, on many occasions, pointed out errors in figures and words on the sheets that were brought in which ultimately affected totals and assigned results. This sometimes led to EC officials making phone calls on the basis of which they sought to explain and correct some of the things we pointed out. I cannot tell to whom those phone calls were made. I cannot tell if the calls were to EC officials or to some other people who were also involved in collation processes. There was no transparent process in this regard,” the witness statement says in paragraph eight.
The witness further states in paragraph 11 the following: “I must admit I was misled by this position of the EC officials into signing the regional collation sheet for the Ashanti Region simply because there was a signature of the agent of the petitioner at the regional collation centre on that sheet. I later found out from speaking with officials at the party headquarters that what had been presented on the signed collation form was not consistent with a tally of polling station results in the Ashanti Region.”
And the witness says in paragraph 29: “Yet my colleague and I realised with shock, on our reaching the residence of the petitioner, that the EC chairperson was in the process of announcing results. Petitioner naturally asked how this was possible when the same person had sent us with a message for him.”
Paragraph 30 of his witness statement says: “Attempts I made to reach the chairperson of the EC by telephone for clarification proved futile, as she had turned off her phones. Clearly, the EC chairperson had not been transparent and truthful and had taken advantage of the absence of the two representatives of the petitioner to make a premature and unconstitutional declaration. She acted with extreme bad faith, unfairly, unreasonably and with no regard for due process.”
The last paragraph (32) of the statement says: “I have known that a declaration has to be transparent and the result must be justified by facts, figures and a transparent tally and collation of results. Clear errors, as have been admitted by the EC in these elections, undermine the credibility of the poll and also cast grave doubt on the integrity of those assigned responsibilities for the free, fair and transparent conduct of elections. It is impossible to sweep these matters under the carpet.”
The witness concludes: “I, Robert Joseph Mettle-Nunoo, say that I am the witness herein and that I made this statement in respect of this presidential election petition, and that to the best of my knowledge and honest belief, paragraphs 1-16 of the witness statement [are] true to the best of my knowledge, information or belief.”
With the court set to reconvene tomorrow, Friday 5 February 2021, to continue hearing the petition against the Election 2020 result, it is expected that Mettle-Nunoo will be led by the petitioner’s lawyers to present his evidence to the court. He will also be cross-examined by lawyers for the respondents, Justin Amenuvor (for the EC) and Akoto Ampaw (for the second respondent, President Akufo-Addo).
The petitioner has so far called two witnesses, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, general secretary of the NDC, and Michael Kpessa-Whyte, a leading member of the NDC who was one of two people who represented the petitioner at the EC National Collation Centre during vote-counting for Election 2020.
Joseph Robert Mettle-Nunoo may well be the third and last witness for the petitioner in the instant action.
Click on the link below to read the full witness statement by Joseph Robert (“Rojo”) Mettle- Nunoo:
Rojo Mettle-Nunoo: witness statement
Wilberforce Asare / Asaase Radio
* Asaase Radio 99.5 – tune in or log on to broadcasts online
Follow us on Twitter: @asaaseradio995
#asaaseradio #TVOL
