Dr Bawumiah may not have been there but I was, not in person of course. I watched it all live on line. I saw the venom in the eyes of the NPP supporters, men capable of anything. I saw President Obasanjo, as he tried to calm people down and explain, that the rumours they had heard were simply not true. I glimpsed leading officials of the NPP rush to the office of the IT Company and come back with conflicting information as to what was actually happening. I heard Sammy Awuku call on all supporters of the NPP to gather in front of the company. The only reason this did not become the epicentre of a massive electoral earthquake that could easily have cost lives was the vigilance of the Ghana Police.
The IT Company had been accused of actually intercepting what were supposed to be “faxed” election results, altering the numbers to the benefit of the NDC and then faxing the new results to the Electoral Commission. What a clever way to steal votes. Except that the idea existed only in the warped minds of some NPP supporters and was simply not true. It is interesting to note, that Nana Akuffo Addo actually swore an affidavit on oath attesting to the veracity of that story and only withdrew it when their belated attempts to find evidence for that failed.
So really, the pattern of events has been, that you first protest, make some noise, get your supporters to turn violent and attack innocent Ghanaians, beat up journalists and then after all that, you retire to actually seek evidence to support your claim. If no evidence is found, then you quietly withdraw the claim without so much as an apology to the innocent people who were attacked because of your lies. I believe Ghana deserves better from our leaders.
We all heard before the Supreme Court petition, how in several areas, votes had actually been deducted from Nana Akuffo Addo and added unto President Mahama’s. Actually, Mr Obetsebi Lamptey, on the ninth of December 2012, at a time of immense tension and volatility in the country actually said at a press conference “it is obvious from the preponderance of evidence available to us , that at all material times the NDC and President Mahama conspired with certain Electoral Commission officials in constituencies all over the country to falsify election results and thereby abusing the mandate of the people of Ghana….”
It was thus with great anticipation that most of us awaited the evidence in court. We expected a clear trail of evidence showing votes originally cast for Nana Addo transferred to President Mahama. We did not expect that all we were going to get was a belated search for absent signatures and administrative errors. And then when the NPP are reminded of these allegations, they dive for cover on account of the fact that these allegations are no longer before the court “for lack of evidence”
Is that it? No evidence? What about all the people who got injured, the journalists who were beaten, the ordinary Ghanaian held to ransom and people in the diaspora worrying for days about relatives back home? And you quietly withdraw the allegation for lack of evidence without so much as an apology to the Ghanaian? You may take cover under court rules, but we will not forget that you are the party that causes trouble first and then frantically go to look for evidence to support the “trouble”. Objection? Indeed!
