President Akufo-Addo and members of the governing New Patriotic Party must apologize to Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Mrs Charlotte Osei, for unjustifiably demonizing her in the lead-up to the December 2016 elections, Managing Editor of The aL-hAJJ, Alhaji Bature Iddrisu, has demanded.

According to Alhaji Bature all the NPP sponsored allegations against the EC boss which mostly led to scathing attacks on her person and the institution, have turned out to be malicious pack of lies following the “first class” polls delivered by Mrs Osei and the electoral management body in last year’s election.

Speaking to this paper in an exclusive interview, the astute social communicator said “in all fairness, President Akufo-Addo and the NPP must apologize unreservedly to the EC and in particular, Madam Charlotte Osei and ask for forgiveness from her for deliberately demonizing her to further their political agenda…

“President Akufo-Addo and the NPP knew what they were spreading about Madam Charlotte Osei were completely false and imaginary yet, they went ahead to say so to woo Ghanaians to their side that the EC was working with the NDC to rig the election for former president John Mahama. Look at what Charlotte Osei went through because of these lies…she was abused by Ghanaians who bought into these lies churned out by NPP. They (NPP) must do the honorable thing if indeed; they have conscience,” The aL-hAJJ’s Managing Editor insisted.

He added that though the EC boss has not openly demanded apology from the President and his party members, “human as we are, they (NPP) should know that she is pained by all the attacks that they led on her. If for nothing at all, the successful conduct of the election has exposed the NPP’s allegations against her as total fabrications and pure lies. The NPP never trusted her but she proved them wrong with her professional conduct.”
The then opposition NPP had running battles with the EC which mostly led to ‘sponsored’ unprovoked scandalous attacks on the person of Mrs Osei by leading members and activists of the now governing party.

Following allegations that Madam Charlotte Osei was NDC-inclined, attempts were made by NPP sponsored agents to use the apex court of the land to block her appointment. Even before she took office, the President’s nephew, Gabby Asare Otchere Darko, wrote a letter to her, demanding the compilation of new voter’s register.

Mr Asare Otchere Darko’s letter later became the basis on which the NPP and its assigns led by Let My Vote Count Alliance, Alliance For Accountable Governance and other pressure groups made Madam Charlotte Osei’s stay in office a torrid one.

A campaign poster depicting the EC boss as NDC’s 2008 parliamentary candidate for Evalue-Gwira-Ajomoro, allegedly photo-shopped by a Communications team member of the NPP, Mr Hopeson Adorye, was widely circulated on social media to consolidate claims that she was in bed with the NDC.

The NPP’s call for new voter’s registers was later carried to higher notch with a petition to the EC boss on claims led by Dr Mahamudu Bawumia that the then opposition party had identified foreigners on the register.

In the midst of these scurrilous claims, President Akufo-Addo also backed his party’s call for new register with threats that he will not accept results of an election run with an “ECOWAS register.”

These claims later turned out to be fictitious after the EC constituted a panel of experts led by Justice VCRAC Crabbe to investigate the allegations. Relentless on its resolve to terrorize the EC boss, the NPP, it was believed, provided lawyers for Mr Abu Ramadan, a brother-in-law of Dr. Bawumia, to engage the EC in needless marathon legal battles at the Supreme Court.

This led to many Ghanaians doubting if the elections would come off as scheduled. For reasons many ascribed to the NPP’s hatred for the EC Chairperson, NPP MPs voted against a proposed amendment to the constitution to allow elections to be conducted in November 2016; though the party agreed to the proposal at an IPAC meeting.

When the EC decided to launch a new logo, the NPP again teamed up with its assigns in Civil Society, media, academia among others to take the EC, particularly Madam Charlotte Osei; to the cleaners. The NPP also alleged that the EC’s new logo was designed by Mrs. Osei’s husband.
The most scathing of all attacks on the EC boss after series of demonstrations and pressure to frustrate her failed, came from NPP MP for Assin Central, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, who alleged that Mr Osei traded sex for her position.

The foul mouth NPP MP subsequently apologized to the EC boss on the basis that he was only joking.

But Mrs Osei made nonsense of all these scandalous allegations when she supervised one of the most credible, free and fair elections in the World as The aL-hAJJ predicted months after her appointment.

President Akufo-Addo and the NPP, who were principal beneficiaries of her adroit handling of the electoral process, Alhaji Bature noted, “must accept that they misled the Nation into believing that Charlotte Osei was indeed, in bed with President Mahama and the NDC.”