By Nana Akua Tweneboah-Koduah

Indeed, the NPP always have some tricks up their sleeps. And you underestimate them at your own peril. They are a bunch of persons who always think ahead, therefore, they have never been short of mischievous acts. And I will say again that if you sleep under the NPP’s watch, don’t ever think you will wake up unscathed.

The NPP have felt uneasy ever since the Supreme Court (SC) justices ordered the KPMG to count the number of pink sheets they submitted with their affidavits to contest the results of the 2012 Presidential Elections. This nervousness led the NPP to do something with the pink sheet boxes lodged at the offices of the SC Registry.

As a result, on the day that the pink sheets were supposed to be counted, the respondents detected that 7 additional boxes of pink sheets have been added to the boxes of pink sheets at the Registry. The protestations by the respondents led to the abrupt suspension of the counting.

When the officials of KPMG, the respondents and petitioners went back to the SC for direction, the justices asked officials of the KPMG to go and resume the counting of the pink sheets. The justices, however, asked KPMG to factor in the concerns of the respondents in their final report.

But since the NPP have never been short of diabolical acts, they pulled another round of surprise when KPMG went to resume the counting of the pink sheets. To the dismay of the KPMG officials and the respondents, another box of pink sheets has “germinated” at the Registry which created another round of protestations from the respondents.

Finally, the counting of the pink sheets got underway but every now and then something tweaked out from the NPP camp to support their bogus claim that they indeed supplied the respondents with 11,842 pink sheets. Even when it finally emerged that the pink sheets at the SC Registry was in excess of over 13,000, the NPP shamelessly claimed victory. The mantra was that if the respondents were looking for 11,842 pink sheets and the NPP have been “magnanimous” enough and over supplied them with extra 2,000 pink sheets, the respondents should be thankful for that gesture instead of crying foul.

But the respondents soldiered on by requesting the control pink sheets at the Presiding Judge’s office to be counted. The NPP went ballistic and would have nothing of that. Finally, when the justices agreed to allow KPMG to count the control pink sheets the NPP did not stop its manoeuvring, manipulation and misinformation.

This attitude by the NPP continued until KPMG was done with the counting of the control pink sheets which came around 9,857. Since the final numbers from the Registry and the Control were way too different, it sent the NPP into a panic mode. But do not count out the NPP yet.

The NPP last issued a statement expressing their unhappiness about the pending report from the KPMG and called for a meeting. We learnt that at the meeting, the NPP tried to superimpose themselves on the KPMG officials ordering them to count some unclear pink sheets using serial numbers. When they failed to persuade the KPMG to do their biddings they drew their last “bad card.”

The NPP issued a statement claiming victory in the pink sheet counting when the referee, KPMG was yet to present its final report to the judges. And they made sure to confuse anybody who read the statement as they gave their own innuendos to what was contained in the KPMG report. Believe me, if you are an NDC supporter, you could easily be depressed if you read that slanted statement from the NPP.

But the lid was blown off the NPP can of tricks when the SC resumed its sitting on the petition case on Monday June 24. After the KPMG official, Nii Amanor Dodoo tendered the report on the pink sheet counting, Philip Addison, lead counsel for the petitioners requested for some time to study the report. When the SC justices granted NPP’s request, Philip Addison unleashed what was on his chest. He wants a soft-copy of the report from KPMG. Addison took the respondents and the KPMG by surprise except himself.

Philip Addison knew what he was looking for even though a pre-agreement was reached that none of the litigating parties was going to be handed a soft-copy of KPMG’s report due to risk management issues.

Philip Addison argued. And he argued and soldiered on. “All what we require is a soft-copy of the report”, he said it multiple times. But the respondents will not give in as they countered. Mr Tony Lithur, lead counsel for President Mahama was on his feet several times to let the court and the whole world know that Addison was attempting to break an agreement for his own selfish end.

When both parties (petitioners and respondents) have ended their take, Justice Atuguba made the smartest move by calling Nii Dodoo back to the witness box to inform the whole world about the pre-agreement made on the report.

The NPP folks held their breath, thinking that perhaps Nii Dodoo will say something different from the pre-agreement. But they got the biggest shock of their lives when Nii Dodoo stated emphatically in the witness box that it was agreed during the audit that KPMG will not give any soft copy of the report to any of the litigating parties due to concerns about tampering or manipulation.

Even after hearing this from Nii Dodoo, Philip Addison will not give up but sought to argue with him, but the former stood his grounds. The justices have heard enough so by a 7-2 decision the NPP folks were denied the chance to have a soft copy of the report.

You will not want to be Philip Addison as his demeanour after the ruling was all too glaring. He looked totally deflated and the cameras that trailed the looks of the NPP lawyers who were in court were all too telling. You could tell without any fear that the NPP have reached a dead end. Nobody knows why they badly wanted a soft copy of the report, but your guess is as good as mine.

nakuakoduah@yahoo.com