Mr. Rojo Mettle Nunoo is set to testify in court virtually as a witness for the petitioner, John Dramani Mahama, in the ongoing Presidential election petition trial; the first time a witness is testifying using a video link at the Supreme Court.
This virtual testifying comes on the back of the court today, February 5, 2020, granting the legal counsel of the petitioner’s request for the court to allow for the witness, Mr. Mettle-Nunoo, who was one of Mr Mahama’s representatives during the December 7 elections at the Electoral Commission (EC) National Collation Centre to give his statement in-camera using a video link to testify outside the court due to ill health.
As a result, the Supreme Court sent a judicial officer to the resident of the witness Mr. Mettle Nunoo in his ‘remote location’ to enable him testify to the court in order for the trial to continue.
The Judicial officer was dispatched to be present at his residence due to concerns raised by the lead counsel for the second respondent [President Akufo-Addo], Mr Ampaw, that he feared the witness might be coached or assisted during the cross-examination if there is no officer of the court present.
Mr. Mettle Nunoo is the third witness for the petitioner, who has raised allegations against the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Mrs. Jean Adukwei Mensah.
Robert Mettle-Nunoo, prior to this, filed his witness statement in support of the petition filed by Former President John Dramani Mahama challenging the declaration of President Akufo-Addo as winner of the presidential election.
The thirty-two paragraph witness statement among others stated that, instead of the pre-arranged transmission system for the regional collation sheets to be transmitted to the head office of the Electoral Commission, what happened part of the time was that one of the Deputy Directors of the EC, Dr. Sereboe Quaicoe, would, from time to time, bring into the strong room what was claimed to be a regional collation sheet and how he got those sheets were not disclosed.
Rojo Mettle-Nunoo catalogued a number of incidents prior to and after the declaration of the Presidential Election results by the Returning Officer and 1st Respondent, Jean Mensah, which he insists cannot be “swept under the carpet” since it “undermines the credibility of the polls and cast grave doubts on the integrity of those assigned responsibilities for a free, fair and transparent conduct of elections.”
The third witness also said in his witness statement that, EC officials misled him to sign the regional collation sheet for the Ashanti Region. The NDC representative explained that, he signed the sheet because there was a signature of Mr Mahama’s agent on it.
Mr Mettle-Nunoo said, he later realised that the sheet presented to him to sign was inconsistent with a tally of polling station results in the Ashanti Region.
So far two representatives of the NDC have testified in court as witnesses for the allegations levelled against the EC’s chairperson, Jean Mensah. Mr.Johnson Asiedu Nketiah appeared in the apex court as the first witness for the petitioner last week and Mr. Kpesa-Whyte also appeared this week as the second witness for the petitioner. petition
