General News of Monday, 6 November 2006

Source: Chronicle

Kufuor rigged the 2004 prez elections -Rojo

Controversial Rojo Mettle-Nunoo of the opposition National Democratic Congress has once again unleashed an uncompromising verbal attack at the President of the nation, John Agyekum Kufuor. Addressing an NDC mini rally last Saturday at Bubiashie in Accra, Rojo, who was embroiled in matters relating to the East Legon cocaine scandal, went all out, hauling all sorts of unpalatable words at the president.

His reason was that “Kufuor rigged the 2004 presidential elections,” which according to him he (Kufuor) never won.

The embittered NDC man, who, following the President’s reference to him as having facilitated the drug business of Vasquez, had attacked the President, went on to describe the NPP administration under President Kufuor’s leadership as an “illegitimate government”.

According to him, having witnessed and supervised election results at the EC from 1992, 1996 through 2000 and 2004 general elections for his party, he could say without any fear of contradiction that the 2004 elections were rigged.

“If I say the NPP rigged the elections, then I know what I am saying because nobody has gone to the EC in this country more than me”, he said.

This, he said was the reason why he and his two other colleagues from the NDC, were protesting the results in a law court.

Having gone into the case, he noted that the ‘Fast track high court’ trying it realised there was something fishy in the elections, saying, “There is something in the soup”.

Based on this, he said the court issued an order not for anybody or group of persons to either touch or tamper with the ballot papers for the presidential elections until the truth was known.

Due to what he described as ‘fraud and rigging’ he emphasized that the same EC again went to pray the court to allow it use the ballot boxes containing the disputed 2004 presidential ballot papers for the just ended District Assembly elections.

Though the court duly agreed to the Commission’s application, he noted that he and some of his colleagues, including Kofi Porturphy and Squadron Leader Clend Sowu Rtd, were never happy but had no option than to allow it to slip through.

With suspicion in mind, he noted that the NDC decided to be vigilant when the ballot papers were being removed from the boxes.

According to Rojo, on that fateful day, they got to the ‘Lighthouse’ building in the Odododiodio constituency of Accra where papers were being kept, only to realize that all the ballot papers had been removed, when indeed the court had not asked them to do so.

He noted that curious as he and his colleagues were, they proceeded to Amasaman where some of the ballot boxes and papers were being kept. He said at Amasaman all the papers had been removed and given to a company in Tema for the manufacturing of toilet roll, which he said, “they benefited from”.

He said this is what the former President Rawlings has been speaking about and the NPP says he is beating war drums and plotting a coup. Chronicle