Supreme Court Judge Harasses Petitioners Principal Witness -In Ongoing Presidential Petition

A member of the Supreme Court panel hearing the 2020 election petition launched into a flurry of insinuations against the witness for former President John Mahama, Dr. Michael Kpesah Whyte, saying he has not been a useful election agent.

Justice Yaw Apau, reacting to Dr. Whyte’s witness statement detailing a reported prank that the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Jean Adukwei Mensa, pulled on him and another colleague to trick them away from the EC “Strongroom” so she could declare a questionable presidential election result, said the witness had let his boss down in what appears to be a prejudging of the matter before it has even started.

Justice Appau would go on to question the level of training that the Ph.D. holder had before he was deployed to the EC’s strong room as a collation agent.

The personal attacks on the witness by the judge led to Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata, lead counsel for former President Mahama, protesting the judge putting it to him unequivocally that he was harassing his witness.

Justice Appau would respond by taking offense to the observation by Mr. Tsikata.

The two would go on to have some banter for a few minutes before the perceived harassment from the judge would cease.

Meanwhile, Dr. Kpessa Whyte maintained that Jean Adukwei Mensa had intentionally tricked them into leaving the EC’s Strong Room where he and Rojo Mettle Nunoo had been representing Mr. Mahama as collation agents.

According to him, results from some of the regions became untenable and suspicious after they had been received in the EC Strong Room. And so Rojo Mettle Nunoo, had brought the discrepancies to the attention of Jean Adukwei Mensah.

The EC Chair had then asked them to go and inform former President Mahama whom they were representing so a meeting could be set up with him and other stakeholders, including the Peace Council so that matters could be sorted out before she declared the results.

“And she did also indicate that the reason she was asking us to do so is for all the stakeholders including the NPP, Peace Council and others could be invited to ensure that we had a credible result before the announcement of the winner is made,” he said.

Unbeknownst to him and Rojo Mettle, Immediately they left to inform John Mahama, the EC boss changed the venue for the announcement of the results and announced the wrong results that she would later change seven times.

The witness agreed that they signed Form 13 however, the form had no space on it to make complaints. Also he said, he and Mr. Mettle Nunoo had noticed the errors after signing them, and thus brought the errors to the attention of the EC boss.

Though he did not personally speak to Jean Mensa, he said his partner in the Strong Room had duly communicated with the EC boss and elicited her instruction to set up a meeting with Mahama, which turned out to be a prank.