The ruling National Democratic Congress has taken on the NPP and lawyer Sam Okudzeto for spreading “astonishing untruths” about the Supreme Court’s verdict in the 2012 presidential election petition.

Mr Sam Okudzeto and some lawyers critiquing the ruling at forum said after thoroughly reading through the various judgments, the nine (9) justices in fact ruled for the petitioners.

But a statement signed by Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Kofi Adams, said the analysis were “lopsided”.

“This rendition is not only outrageous, it is utterly scandalous and we condemn it in the strongest possible terms. Who would have thought that after over five decades of practice as a lawyer Mr. Okudzeto would feel obliged to indulge in such blatant distortion of a judgment of the highest court of the land, just to further the interest of his party the NPP.”

According to Mr Adams, the petitioners failed to secure a majority in any of the six issues that they set out in their “ill-fated petition hence the inevitable dismissal of same”.

The Deputy General Secretary emphasized that what the petitioners were relying on were mere administrative and entry errors made on the pinks, and yet the NPP wanted to latch onto it to “to subvert the true will of the people”.

“We wish to state that the Supreme Court remains the final arbiter in matters of this nature and call on all NPP supporters still deluded into believing that they could latch onto purely administrative and entry errors made on pink sheets to subvert the true will of the people to refrain from further undermining the authority of the Supreme Court through reckless pronouncements designed to create panic and anxiety within our body politic. Especially we urge Mr. Okudzeto to move away from such unbecoming conduct and carry himself more as statesman.”

STATEMENT BY NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS ON DISTORTION OF SUPREME COURT JUDGEMENT

The National Democratic Congress has become aware of a dangerous narrative emanating from some personalities within the New Patriotic party (NPP) on the 29th August Verdict of the Supreme Court in the Election Petition case.

At a forum organized by the propaganda wing of the NPP also known as the Danquah Institute, such personalities as Mr. Samuel Okudzeto and a handful of NPP supporters masquerading as academics and civil society operatives sought to deliberately mislead the unsuspecting public about the true outcome of the election petition.

Among other astonishing untruths, Mr. Okudzeto posited that his reading of the various judgments of the 9 justices of the Supreme Court showed that the petitioners won by a 5-4 verdict but the President of the court pronounced the wrong judgment in favour of the three respondents. This rendition is not only outrageous, it is utterly scandalous and we condemn it in the strongest possible terms. Who would have thought that after over five decades of practice as a lawyer Mr. Okudzeto would feel obliged to indulge in such blatant distortion of a judgment of the highest court of the land, just to further the interest of his party the NPP.

Surely such lopsided analysis on the part of Mr. Okudzeto and his colleague speakers at the forum could not have been the product of a diligent study of the judgment written by all nine judges in this case as a detailed study of the judgments leaves no room for ambiguity about the paucity of merit in the case that the three petitioners took to court.

For the avoidance of doubt, the petitioners failed to secure a majority in any of the six issues that they set out in their ill-fated petition hence the inevitable dismissal of same. It is also not rocket science that having failed to convince a majority of the judges on any of the six issues, the question as to whether or not there were violations, malpractices and illegalities in the 2012 elections and whether if there were, they affected the outcome of the elections is clearly answered in the negative.

As far as the NDC is concerned, the judgment handed down by the Supreme Court has become a reference point for upholding the rights of citizens and protecting them from disgruntled politicians whose sense of entitlement leads them to employ all sorts of dubious schemes in a bid to capture political power at all cost.

We wish to state that the Supreme Court remains the final arbiter in matters of this nature and call on all NPP supporters still deluded into believing that they could latch onto purely administrative and entry errors made on pink sheets to subvert the true will of the people to refrain from further undermining the authority of the Supreme Court through reckless pronouncements designed to create panic and anxiety within our body politic. Especially we urge Mr. Okudzeto to move away from such unbecoming conduct and carry himself more as statesman.

Finally we urge the leadership of the NPP to take full responsibility for failing their long-suffering supporters for the umpteenth time through their incompetence and give Ghanaians some semblance of peace after their spectacular failure to disrupt the normal course of the nation’s life over the last eight months.

SIGNED – 27/9/13 KOFI ADAMS DEPUTY GENERAL SECRETARY, ADMINISTRATION.