What should we do with it now? - Kwesi Pratt on Asiedu Nketiah's leaked audio

Seasoned journalist, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. has cast doubts over the leaked audio recording purportedly containing the voice of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, who is heard alleging that the party didn't have concrete evidence during their election 2020 petition to the Supreme Court.

On the tape recording which has gone viral, Mr. Asiedu Nketiah, affectionately called 'General Mosquito', who appeared to be talking to some NDC members in a closed-door meeting could be heard accusing and blaming the Chairman of the party, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, for the party's shoddy work in relation to the election petition.

He stated categorically that he denied having the results when he stood in the dock during cross-examination at the Supreme Court because the NDC had no evidence to back their claims and if he hadn't denied it, he would have been disgraced.

Mr. Asiedu Nketiah further revealed that lawyer Tsatsu Tsikata who defended the party earlier refused to stand for the NDC because of the lack of concrete evidence but decided to defend the party after the petition was reviewed.

"When we were doing the collation, the system you (Chairman Ofosu Ampofo) brought saying it is robust and strong, when we collated five Regions; we are told it has crashed. This is the truth. So, when we decided to the court, we agreed to do manual collation.

So, we gathered some people to collect the pick sheets and our Chairman sat on the Collation Committee that he will handle the collation. He went for some University people who did some shoddy work. When the time was up for me to stand in the dock, the results that they gave me if I use it to defend the case, I will be disgraced so we couldn't send those results to the court.

"They then said we should go to lawyer Tsikata. So we carried all the documents and presented them to lawyer Tsikata. These are things we shouldn't be saying publicly. When we gave them to him and in the next morning, after he had perused them, he replied us saying take back your grasscutter.

If these are the things you are sending to the court, go and look for your lawyer because I can't do this work. This is why when we went to court and they said where are my results, I replied that I didn't bring any results. I believe you heard that; I don't know how to lie. I am saying if I become the Chairman, all this nonsense will not happen", General Mosquito said in the leaked audio recording.

But Kwesi Pratt, discussing the matter during Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" morning show, says Mr. Asiedu Nketiah presented a skewed version of the truth.

To him, the audio, in the first place, might not be that of Asiedu Nketia's voice stressing, "we don't know if the tape is true or not".

He also challenged the revelations by the NDC General Secretary as he argued that the reasons given by Mr. Asiedu Nketiah to tell why lawyer Tsikata refused to defend the party are untrue.



"...I know the reasons given on the tape recording saying why they didn't send the pink sheets are not true. I know that as a fact. The reason why Mr. Tsikata didn't want to depend on the pink sheets is not what Asiedu Nketia said. The infractions he saw were not pink sheets infractions. The infractions he saw were constitutional violations and so on and he wanted to dwell on that. That I know as a fact," he asserted.

Mr. Pratt also wondered why Asiedu Nketiah is now giving his party members and Ghanaians this information about the NDC not having concrete evidence when they went to the Supreme Court to challenge the legitimacy of the election results which saw President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, re-elected as Head of State.

"Now that you are telling us this, what should we do with it?", he mockingly queried.