Deputy General Secretary of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Koku Anyidoho, has become a laughing stock in Ghana’s political arena, John Boadu, National Organiser and acting General Secretary of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), has said.

His observation followed a claim by Mr. Anyidoho that some members of the NPP were pleading with him to drop plans to sue the vice-presidential nominee of the NPP, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, over a “fake” Togolese register of voters that he had procured to back his claim that there were at least 76,000 Togolese citizens on Ghana’s electoral roll in the Volta Region.

Speaking in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom on Accra 100.5FM on Thursday August 4, Mr. Anyidoho said: “During the exhibition, the law allows persons to submit evidence against people who are foreigners whose names are on the register in order to remove those persons’ names from it. How come Bawumia has not sent that evidence to the EC so that those 76,000 Togolese who voted in the Volta Region will be removed from the register? It tells you he was lying. It tells you that that document he brought was fake.”

He added: “…Who is Bawumia to be short-circuiting our electoral process? Like I said, and I have served notice, this same Bawumia, I am taking him to court [over] the fake Togolese register under Section 251 of Act 29 of the Criminal Offences Act 1960 [for] deceiving a public officer. I am doing the drafting of the petition, hopefully by Monday [August 8], I will hand it over to the Attorney General and see how it goes.”

When asked by the host to mention the names of the NPP members who had appealed to him to drop the case, he said: “They [NPP members] came to appeal to me to drop the case because they are our friends. Don’t forget we have friends in the NPP. We also have even family members.

Some NPP people are married to NDC people so we cannot be disclosing those who [appealed] but it is true they appealed to me to drop the case because Dr Bawumia will not be able to produce any evidence, it will be too much of embarrassment but I insisted on going to court due to the possible repercussions of his action.”

But reacting to Mr. Anyidoho’s comments on the same network, Mr. Boadu said: “Koku Anyidoho is becoming a laughing stock in this country. He has become a joke of a politician. He is my friend [and] when I meet him, I will advise him that he can do better than this kind of politics.”

He further urged Mr. Anyidoho not to give in to persons pleading with him to drop the case but to go ahead with the suit. “He should not listen to those begging him to drop the case against Bawumia. He should go ahead with his plan,” he said.