One of the representatives of the 2020 National Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate at the Electoral Commission’s (EC) national collation centre (Strongroom), Rojo Mettle-Nunoo, says he was misled into certifying some regional results.
Mr Mettle-Nunoo will on Friday be the third witness of John Dramani Mahama to be cross-examined in his election petition seeking a re-run of the December 7 polls.
NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia and Dr Michael Kpessah-Whyte, who was also at the ‘strongroom’, have already been cross-examined.
It will be recalled that lead counsel for Mr Mahama, Tsatsu Tsikata, on Wednesday asked the court to be allowed to address it in chambers regarding a potential witness who could not file a statement due to health concerns.
The seven-member panel of judges allowed this meeting to take place only to return and announce that the case had been adjourned to Friday, February 5 without any additional details.
JoyNews sources say this witness is Mr Mettle-Nunoo.
A witness statement filed by Mr Mettle-Nunoo has also been sighted by Adomonline.com.
He alleges in paragraph 11 of the statement that he was misled by the EC officials into signing the regional collation sheet for Ashanti Region.
He explained that he signed the statement because there was a signature of the agent of Mr Mahama on it.
He later found out that what had been presented on the signed collation form was not consistent with a tally of polling station results in the Ashanti Region.
Mr Mettle-Nunoo said further that there were two separate summary sheets brought to the strongroom for the Eastern Region.
He said both could not be authenticated and it is only by getting the originals of these documents that the petitioner can get clarity on exactly which one is genuine.
He further alleged that his team detected challenges with the Greater Accra Region results.
“We observed that the total votes given to the petitioner which is meant to be based on the sum of all constituency votes, on the face of the regional summary sheets presented, were less than his actual total,” he started.
He further alleged that there is a difference of 1,707 votes between the regional summary sheets presented to them in the strong and the one published on the EC’s website and there has been no explanation for this.
He again makes reference to the Northern Region where he says two regional results summary sheets were brought into the strong room.
One, he alleges was without the signatures of the agents of the candidates and the other had no signature of the NDC agent but had been signed by the other agents.
He said it is only by getting the originals of these documents that there can be clarity on exactly which is the genuine one from the region.
On the Western North Region, Mr Mettle-Nunoo said he made a mistake by signing the sheet even though Mr Mahama’s agent had not signed it at the regional level.
He said he signed without noticing the reason Mr Mahama’s agent had stated for not signing them.
He then corroborates the claim made by Dr Kpessah-Whyte about the EC Chair asking ( or instructed as used by Dr Kpessah-Whyte during cross-examination) that they confer with their presidential candidate.
“She said very directly that we should go and speak with the petitioner,” he wrote.