General News of Monday, 24 December 2012

Source: etvghana

Police-state harassment a result of election fraud - NPP

The General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, yesterday issued another caution to President John Mahama and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to cease using police-state tactics to interfere with the preparation of evidence for the upcoming court case to challenge the EC's declaration of Mr Mahama as the one-touch victor in the just-ended presidential election.

“These tactics can only be described in one way — a police state — and they are virtually an admission of NDC guilt over its crude election theft," he added.

Mr Owusu Afriyie accused the NDC of manipulating the vote count and then sending dozens of fully armed police and military personnel on a raid of a private office full of male and female students merely counting blue sheets.

He further stated that at the weekend, “we had the break-in and ransacking of the law office of Gloria Akuffo, the lead member of the NPP legal team”.

According to Mr Owusu Afriyie, Ms Akuffo had her computer server taken away but she had not left any case documents in the office to be tampered with, adding that as a cover up, other offices in the Pyramid House, where her office is located, were also broken into.

"Ghana is a democracy and its people will not stand back and allow any more such violent and disgusting activities to occur. They are becoming a daily reality, just like the blackmail, bribery and even threats of physical harm made by the NDC to keep polling agents from cooperating with the NPP's court case," he said.

"Elections must be decided by the people who cast the votes. Their sovereign will cannot be usurped by those who fraudulently count, tabulate or declare the votes. We are certain that the evidence we will bring to the Supreme Court will uncover a vast pattern of irregularities that cannot go unaddressed if Ghanaian democracy is to continue to thrive.

“We repeat our call to all supporters of the NPP and of our court case in search of truth and justice to remain calm. We thank them for the peaceful response throughout the country so far, even in the face of extreme NDC provocation, and declare ‘God and the country is on our side’,” he concluded.