TSATSU EXPOSES BAWUMIA OVER ATTEMPT TO MISLEAD SUPREME COURT WITH OVER 11,000 DUPLICATES PINK SHEETS

By Felix Engsalige Nyaaba

An attempt by the election petitioners to deceive the Supreme Court of Ghana with over 11,000 duplication of pink sheets to overturn the 2012 presidential results in favour of the Nana Akuffo Addo, the presidential candidate for the NPP in the presidential election was yesterday brought to light by Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata, lead counsel for the NDC, the third respondent in the ongoing election dispute case at the Supreme Court.

Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata, lead counsel for the NDC in his third day in cross examination on the star witness, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia exposed thounsand of duplicates pink sheets used as exhibits by the petitioners before the court.

The petitioners who are seeking from the court to annul 11,138 polling station results and declare Nana Akuffo Addo, winner of the 2012 presidential elections have duplicated one polling station to another pink sheets for three or four different exhibits as evidence before the court.

However, Mr Tsikata did not overlook the opportunity and went through every exhibit-by–exhibit and exposed thousands of the exhibits been from same polling station and stamp by a commissioner of oath as exhibits.

According to counsel  who spent the entire cross examination period  pointing to all the duplicates  exhibits used by the petitioners, the duplication of one pink sheet for three to four exhibit was a clear violation of the court process and an attempt by the petitioners to  shore up the figure to deceive the court to overturn the presidential results.

The cross examination on Bawumia on his 10^th day in the  witness box was intensive and laboring on him  as he struggled many times to answer simple questions  thrown to him by Mr. Tsikata.

Almost all the pink sheet marked as exhibits by the petitioners as evidence to compel the Supreme Court to overturn the election results was quadruple from one polling station to another.

The cross examination between on Bawumia by the NDC lawyer took a keen mode, as they exchange questions and answers

Counsel; take a look at the exhibit in your, can you confirm that they are from the same polling station and marked as four different exhibit/

Witness: yes, my Lords, but we used one for the analysis in our data.

Counsel: can you confirm that your polling agent, the NPP agent has signed?

Witness; yes, my lord, they signed to attest what took place.

Counsel: on the face of the pink sheet can you confirm that there is anything in the form of protest by your agent on those results?

Witness: on the face of the pink sheet, no, but that is why we are now protesting.

Counsel: Dr. Bawumia, you sworn an oath of Quran to tell this court the truth, nothing but the truth?

Witness: yes, my Lords.

Counsel: so you will agree with that everything you are saying here is not true, and you are therefore defiling the Holy Quaran, in fact you are prejudicing the things you said on oath?

Addison:  “we object to this kind of question to the witness, my Lords, I think counsel is threatening the witness, what counsel is saying is supposed to be a threat but not a question, we object to this style of question.”

Tsatsu:”I think I am entitle to remind the witness to the oath he took, he must be remained on the Quran he swore to tell this court the true, and nothing but the truth.”

Court: objection overruled, counsel continue,

Counsel: take a look at these pink sheets, the name is DA primary School, Agoveme, please can you confirm that these are pink sheets from the same polling station and are used as exhibit by you?

Witness: yes, my Lords, I can confirm that these are from the same polling station but used as different exhibits, but as I said they were used only ones in our data analysis.

Counsel:  And you can confirm that your polling agents have their signature on it, affirming that that was the results recorded at that polling station?

At the E.P Church polling station at Vogapkpe in the Volta region, the petitioner used the polling station pink sheets results in duplicate of four different exhibits which was also had a stamp of the Commissioner of Oath.

 When Bawumina was asked why such a duplication of one pink sheet for four different exhibit, he said the exhibits were both manually and electronically generated resulting into the duplications.

According to the witness, even though there have been consistent duplication of the pink sheets as exhibit for more than ones, the data was analysis ones and that it was not an attempt to deceive the court.

At the Horti Primary B poling station  also in the Volta region, the petitioners used  the pink sheet for four different exhibits, but when the witness was asked, he again denied  and said the exhibits were used only once in the analysis of the data.

A heated legal debate however ensued between the petitioner counsel and Mr Tsikata when the when the witness was asked to confirm or otherwise of a list of 43 poling station results pink sheets which were used for either three or four different exhibits  before the court.

Addision

According to lead counsel for the petitioners, Mr. Addison, the manner in which Tsatsu was conducting the cross examination was an attempt to delay the proceedings.

He said,” My Lords, I think if counsel have thousands of those  duplicate pink sheets , he should put them together in bulk and present to us, rather than bringing pieces one after another.”

We are getting tiring with this kind of cross examination, or it is an attempt to delay the process, counsel keep on asking the same type of questions on the same manner,” he argued.

Tsatsu: “I think the petitioners are to rather entirely be blame, they are creators of all these duplicates of pinks sheets, but I think we are entitle to be clear of the set of exhibits they brought.’

“They actually brought the delay process here, we are entitled to subject their exhibit to thorough examination, and we are entirely in control.”

Court:  ‘we though when we are on break you used that period to sort things out before we comes back to sit,  you just have to sort all the difference and when  lead counsel look at them then you pass them onto the witness and we move on.”

Tsatsu  comes back, “we are actually doing our best, but it has been the caused by the petitioners, when we go and sort them out, they would still want to see them, here, may be senior counsel requesting to see before the witness answer question, so it not ours, they are into the delay process. But my Lords, we would abide by your advices, we would ensure that all the duplicate pink sheets are put together.’

After back and forth on the mode of cross examination and exchange of pink sheets between lawyers, the court adjourbne3d the case to Monday May 6, 2013 for continuation of cross examination on Dr Bawumia.