The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Aseidu Nketiah has denied claims of him pronouncing the former President, John Dramani Mahama as the 2020 Presidential election winner.
Speaking as a witness for the petitioner in court today, February 1, 2020, in the Presidential election petition hearing, Mr Aseidu Nketiah told the court that, he only implied that the party’s Flagbearer John Mahama had won in a video he claimed Mahama and the NDC will form the next government.
He made this statement in response to a question posed by counsel for the second respondent (Nana Akufo-Addo) in the person of Lawyer Akoto Ampaw during the second day of his cross-examination after series of video clips showing various leaders of the NDC party proclaiming victory for the NDC party during the just ended 2020 elections was shown.
Lawyer Ampaw stated that, Mr.Aseidu Nketiah claimed that his party’s Presidential candidate John Dramani Mahama had won the 2020 presidential elections and not the sitting President, Nana Akufo-Addo.
However, Mr Aseidu Nketia disagreed with his statement and said those were not his words. Although, he agreed to some portions of the video, he averred that he never at any point implied that John Mahama had won.
“My Lords, I implied that I expected President Mahama to win the elections because every evidence was pointing at President Mahama’s victory.
“And infact, my Lords, in all the seven parliamentary and presidential elections that has been held before this one, the presidential candidate who wins the parliamentary elections across boards, wins the presidential as well.”
According to Mr. Aseidu Nketiah, he only expressed expectations that the petitioner would win the elections based on his knowledge of the dynamics of elections in Ghana over the years.
He then explained to the seven-member panel of the court that, every evidence gathered from their collation team pointed to their candidate’s victory, and therefore his reason for mounting the stage to address the press in the said video.
Prior to his statement, lead counsel for the petitioner, Lawyer Tsatsu Tsikata, raised an objection to the court not to play a video that President Akufo-Addo’s lawyer brought in as evidence but was unfortunately turned down.
Mr Tsatsu Tsikata noted that the video in question which the second respondent’s lawyer had argued was critical to their case, had not been authenticated.
The video was a press conference where the NDC Flagbearer John Dramani Mahama, the General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia and other party members had gathered to raise allegations to the Electoral Commission’s declaration that the NPP presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo had won the 2020 elections.
At the said event the NDC Flagbearer John Mahama mentioned that he had won the 2020 election and not the NPP candidate as announced by EC Chairperson Jean Mensa.
Also, in the said video, the NDC Flagbearer, General Secretary, Mr Asiedu Nketia and the NDC National Communications Officer, Sammy Gyamfi announced they had won majority seats in Parliament.
