According to him, it is now an offense to laugh at the office of the EC no matter how funny the issue may be.
Narrating how the incident transpired in an interview on Okay FM’s ‘Ade Akye Abia‘ Morning show, the NDC chief scribe said laughter is part of his nature, and so could not control himself when the EC boss cracked a joke at a recent IPAC meeting on Wednesday; but she surprisingly took offense.
“Madam Jean Mensa was cracking a joke and she was greatly offended when I laughed at her joke. Interestingly, some party representatives wer also giggling and convulsed with laughter at what she was saying, but she only became offended at my action asking why I was laughing at her,” he recounted.
Mr Nketia revealed that the EC boss during the meeting said that the Commission had already taken a decision to use only the district offices of the Commission to conduct the limited registration for the district assembly elections. This, he said, was even against the earlier agreement to use all registration centres.
But perhaps, what really got Mrs Mensa’s blood boiling, according to the NDC General Secretary, was when he (Asiedu) questioned certain decisions the EC announced at the meeting, that instead of using monies allocated the electoral body for the maintenance of biometric machines, the EC rather intends to use the funds to purchase new machines.
“She wants to change all the machines which were used for the registration and so she won’t use them for the limited registration . . . she claims the cost of maintenance is more expensive than the amount of monies her outfit will spend to procure new machines,” he disclosed.
General Mosquito, as the NDC capo is affectionately called said he subsequently sought to find out from the EC boss why her outfit would want to go contrary to the reasons for which Parliament gave its say-so for the release of the monies; purposely for maintenance of the machines for the limited registration in the district assembly elections.
His question seemed to have provoked Mrs Mensa who retorted that “she owes no political party an explanation about the finance of the EC and the budget allocated to the Commission.
“She spent 15 minutes explaining herself as if she was on a political platform . . . she added that the machines are like decorated wedding luggage which the groom has prepared for his bride and then when I laughed over this joke, she took offense,” he narrated.