General News of Wednesday, 22 May 2013

Source: NPP Communications Directorate

Tsatsu, Lithur caught lying in open court

Counsels for the 3rd and 1st Respondents, Tsatsu Tsikata and Tony Lithur on Tuesday told the Supreme Court an obvious untruth when they stated in open court that an inventory of boxes containing the pink sheet exhibits presented by the petitioners in the case had been taken, together with KPMG, last Thursday and that the number on the inventory had mysteriously increased by Monday when the counting began.

Counsel for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Tsatsu Tsikata, in presenting his case for the court to vary their order on the audit of the pink sheet exhibits and for copies of the presiding judge of the Court, William Atuguba, to be used in the audit stated that last Thursday, an inventory taken by the referee and the parties in the case had shown that there were 24 boxes of pink sheets and that surprisingly the boxes had increased to 31 by Monday.

“Indeed my Lords, as at Thursday, when preparations were being made for counting to begin, the boxes at the registry were 24. This was confirmed by our representatives and the referees when they went to registry. However, My Lords on Monday, the 24 boxes had increased to 31, and it is, therefore, obvious that the exhibits in the custody of the registry have been compromised”, Tsatsu Tsikata stated.

However, this claim by the Counsels to the NDC and John Mahama has turned out to be false as the Senior Partner of KPMG, the internationally recognized auditing firm conducting the audit, Joe Winful, has confirmed that there was no inventory of the boxes, exposing the lies that had been peddled by NDC communicators and indeed by their Counsels in open court.

Mr. Winful stated on Adom TVs Badwam that the KPMG had no knowledge of any inventory taking, and would have publicly announced any anomalies if any had been detected at the inventory stage.

Indeed lead counsel for the petitioners also stated in court, that neither the petitioners nor their representatives were involved in the “counting”, and knew nothing about an inventory of boxes at the registry, adding that it was surprising that the respondents were aware of the number of boxes and pink sheets in the vault of the registry.

The Judges in the course of the day threw out the application by the respondents to have copies of the Judges used in the counting with the court referring the respondents to send their complaints to the referee.

The hearings of Tuesday also saw the end of the marathon cross examination by Tsatsu Tsikata of lead witness of the petitioners, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia after 13 days.