The Mischievous Act Of An NPP Presiding Officer

By Nana Akua Tweneboah-Koduah

It does not take much effort for people to get diabolical. Therefore, when people set their minds to become mischievous, they go all length to get their evil acts in scope. The country is currently on “semi-hold”, thanks largely to the Supreme Court (SC) petition by the NPP that is seeking to overturn the 2012 presidential results in favour of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who was soundly trashed in the polls by President John Mahama.

The on-going case which was filed by Nana Akufo-Addo, the past NPP presidential candidate, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia, the running mate and Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, NPP’s national chairman is seeking the help of the nine justices of the SC to throw away valid votes totalling over 4 million in NDC strongholds and eventually declare Akufo-Addo the winner of the 2012 presidential election.

Interestingly, when the affidavits of the case were filed with the SC, the names of Nana Akufo-Addo and Jake Obetsebi Lamptey the first and third petitioners respectively were missing. Checks at the SC have confirmed that Nana Addo and Jake Lamptey did not file any affidavits; therefore, they cannot be questioned in the witness box by counsels of the respondents.

But strangely enough there were a couple of NPP members who filed the affidavits with Dr Bawumia claiming that they witnessed some irregularities during voting in their constituencies. One of the claimants’ is Hussein Safianu, a polling station officer at Savelugu in the Northern region.

Mr Safianu, a staunch NPP member, was no ordinary polling station officer during the 2012 Elections, but the presiding officer at that polling station. As the presiding officer who was trained by the Electoral Commission (EC) on how to file the pink sheet at his polling station, one would have expected that this gentleman would have done just that.

But after the counting of the votes at the Safianu’s polling station, he asked all the polling agents of the various political parties to sign their names on the pink sheet. But after all the polling agents have signed their names, Safianu deliberately refused to append his signature on the pink sheet.

Therefore, when the NPP was filing their affidavits with the SC they decided to use Safianu as a witness to buttress their point that there were instances that some presiding officers refused to sign their names on the pink sheets. At that time, Dr Bawumia ignorantly believed that if a presiding officer refuses or forgets to sign his/her name on the pink sheet, the result in that polling station must be thrown away.

That was why Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, the lead counsel of the NDC made an application last week with the SC to haul Safianu to the witness box to question him on why he refused to sign his name on the pink sheet and what he was seeking to achieve by doing that.

Even though Mr Tsikata’s application was not approved by the Justices of the SC, he opened the can of worms to Ghanaians as to the diabolical nature of the NPP and how they want to use every means possible to win this unwinnable case.

We have a presiding officer who was engaged and paid by the EC to man a polling station. He did not witness any irregularities at the polling station. And none of the polling agents representing the various parties refused to sign their names on the pink sheet at the end of the counting and declaration of the votes. In fact, none of the polling agents raised any protest, indicating that the election at that polling station was not only transparent, but free and fair.

But strangely Safianu, the presiding officer refused to sign his name, and was too happy to file an affidavit with the NPP claiming that he witnessed something that did not exist at the polling station.

If you can go to this extreme length to portray how mischievous you are, then I’m afraid that Ghana is forever doomed when we have such people like Safianu manning important positions in the country. Mr Safianu may have escaped by a clean shave from being questioned, but the diabolical thing that he sought to achieve will forever hang on his neck. Because when the case is long settled and the NPP end up by not having their way of getting the valid votes of over 4 million thrown away, Safianu will carry this shame to his grave.

nakuakoduah@yahoo.com