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Chief Justice, His Lordship Justice Anin Yeboah says the witness statements of the petitioner, Dr. Michael Kpessa-Whyte and Robert Joseph Mettle-Nunoo in the Supreme Court election petition is a mere "fanciful tale".

The Supreme Court today, March 4, delivered its final verdict on the election petition filed by former President John Dramani Mahama challenging the 2020 Presidential election.

The issues under determination in the court are "whether or not the petition discloses any cause of action, whether or not based on the data contained in the declaration of the 1st Respondent (EC), no candidate obtained more than 50% of the valid votes cast as required by article 63 (3) of the 1992 constitution, whether or not the 2nd respondent [Nana Akufo-Addo] still met the Article 63(3) of the 1992 threshold by the exclusion or inclusion of the Techiman South constituency presidential election results, whether or not the declaration by the first respondent (EC) on December 9 of the presidential election conducted on December 7 was in violation of Article 63(3) of the 1992 Constitution and whether or not the alleged vote padding and other errors complained of by the petitioner affected the outcome of the presidential election results of 2020''.

Reading the judgement before the court, the Chief Justice noted that the above mentioned witnesses of the former President telling the court that they were both instructed by the Electoral Commissioner, Mrs. Jean Mensa to deliver a message to the petitioner prior to the declaration of the election results doesn't sound well.

He stated that the two witnesses were on a specific assignment at the election strongroom and so shouldn't have abandoned their tasks.

He emphasized that their testimonies didn’t carry weight and that they have to blame themselves for abandoning their post.

“As for the other two witnesses, that is Petitioner’s Witness PW2 and 3; Dr Kpessa-Whyte and Robert Joseph Mettle-Nunoo, the little said about their testimonies relative to the issues at stake, the better. They recounted the fanciful tale of how the Chairperson refused to heed their complaints on some irregularities they noticed on some of the collation forms which came from the regions.

“We describe this evidence as fanciful because, despite this alleged protest, they went ahead to verify and certify 13 of 16 regional collation sheets”,  Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah said.

The court found their testimonies unworthy of consideration.

“In fact, regarding the testimonies of PW2 and PW3, if their evidence is to be believed then they had to blame themselves for abandoning their post at the national collation centre at the time the verification and certification of the results were ongoing and PW3 had then verified and certified the regional collation results out of the 16 . . . the testimonies would have carried some little weight if the purpose of the petition was to change entries made on the collation forms or summary sheets but that is not the case. Their testimonies were therefore of no relevance to the said issues set out for determination and so we find them unworthy for consideration whatsoever,” Chief Justice Anin Yeboah said while delivering the judgement of the Supreme Court.

His Lordship Anin Yeboah also called the General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Johnson Asiedu Nketia, who appeared as witness for the petitioner as the "star witness" of the petitioner's case.

Therefore, Mr. Asiedu Nketia saying the petitioner is in court to challenge the declaration by the Electoral Commissioner and not the elections itself is what the court is going by.

“Out of the three witnesses [the petitioner called], the one whose testimony appeared to have relevance to the issue as stake was Johnson Asiedu Nketia (PW1). He was in fact the star witness of the petitioner. His testimony vividly explained the reason the petitioner is in court.

“While the testimony of PW1 [Johnson Asiedu Nketia] was emphatic, the testimonies of PW2 [Dr Kpessa Whyte] and 3 [Rojo Nunoo] were in respect of alleged irregularities in the figures or data on some of the collation forms that they sighted in the strong room but after which they ultimately signed or certified. 

“Notwithstanding all these allegations of misunderstandings with the staff of the 1st Respondent in the strong room and the fact that they were absent during the declaration they did not give any indication as to how these happenings affected the final results announced by the 1st Respondent,” Chief Justice Anin-Yeboah said while addressing Mr. Mahama’s petition on Thursday.

The Chief Justice further added that the witness statements backing the petitioner's case don't hold, explaining that the NDC officials were not the only people in the election strongroom but other party agents were also there.

He held that whatever happened in the strongroom would have equally been witnessed by the agents of the various political parties and so wondered why Dr. Kpessa-Whyte and Rojo Mettle-Nunoo didn't bring their claims to the attention of the other party agents for them to be witnesses to the alleged misconduct of Mrs. Jean Mensa.

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