Wenchi High Court adjouns Techiman election petition hearing to Jan 17

Wenchi  High Court has adjourned the hearing of Techiman South Parliamentary election petition hearing to January 17.

Below is what transpired during court proceedings: 

Parties
1. The Petitioner: Christopher Beyere Baasongti was personally in court.

2. The 1st Respondent, Martin Kwaku Adjei-Mensah was represented by Richard Asamoah, NPP Constituency Secretary for Techiman South.

3. The 2nd Respondent was represented by its Techiman Municipal Electoral Officer, Sampson Ofori Gyamfi.

Legal Representation
1. Justin Pwavra Teriwajah Esq. for the Petitioner.
2. Emmanuel Addai Esq. for the 2nd Respondent.
3. Counsel for the 1st Respondent was not in court.

Business of the Day!
Counsel for the 2nd Respondent commenced his cross-examination of the Petitioner’s star witness, Hameed Bin Laden;

1. You are the Director for the for the NDC, Techiman South. Is that not so?
Ans. My Lord, precisely so.

2. As the Director, you have participated in seminars, workshops and training programs organized by the Electoral Commission for the candidates and their agents. Is that correct?
Ans: My Lord, for the 2020 Elections, such seminars were not organized for the reasons best known to them.
Witness said, he rather attended DIPAC meetings.
3. How long have you been the Elections Director for the NDC?
Ans: I have been in this position since 2018.

4. Apart from this position, have you ever acted in any capacity as far as the NDC is concerned?
Ans: My Lord, I have been an active member for the past 20 years.

5. Have you been a polling agent for your party before?
Ans: Yes my Lord, I have ever been a polling agent at Bawku Central, Wa Central and Techiman South.

6. Can you tell us the year you served in that capacity?
Ans: My Lord, in the year 2000 – Wa Central
2004 – Bawku Central
2008/2012 – Techiman South.

7. In the year 2020, as the Election Director of the NDC, you organized workshops for your candidate and agents. Is that correct?
Ans: My Lord, together with my candidate, we organized workshops for our agents.

8. You were supplied with training manuals by the Electoral Commission for that assignment. Is that correct?
Ans: We were supplied training manuals by our Party Headquarters.

9. You were at the Collation Center with Eric Pienaa, Ishaq Nai-Abdulai and Abubakar Awudu. Is that right?
Ans: That’s correct, my Lord. The four of us were the accredited collation agents.

10. You conscientise your agents to go and intervene with the work of the Electoral Officers?
Ans: My Lord, that is totally and completely wrong.
I wonder how someone can intervene with what has not started. I am saying this because, collation has not started.

11. This is evident when you read paragraph 24 of your own witness statement, when the Petitioner joined you to make a protest after the results had been declared by the Returning Officer of the Electoral Commission.
Ans: My Lord, that is totally wrong. In any case, counsel first claimed that we interfered with the Collation process, but surprisingly, counsel is now talking about declaration.
The Returning Officer did not do what the law provides because declaration cannot precede collation. Therefore, we protested against the unlawful thing.

12. Confirm your full name to this court.
Ans: My Lord, Abdul- Hameed Zakaria is my full name. Abdul-Hameed, hyphenated.

13. And you are also known as Bin Laden?
Ans: That is very very correct.

14. You were named after Osama Bin Laden of Afghanistan!
Ans: My Lord, that is very wrong, I was not named after him.

15. On 6/01/2022, you were granted an interview with Akina Radio, a radio station in Techiman. Is that not correct?
Ans: Yes, I granted an interview with the said Radio station.

16. In the said interview, you spoke Twi language?
Ans: Yes, that is correct.

17. In the same interview you granted with Akina Radio, you also said that Returning Officer declared the figures from his head.
Ans: My Lord, I stated that, considering the Form 1C, which the 2nd Respondent presented to this court, I am sure the Returning Officer did the collation in his kitchen or his bedroom, that is why he changed figures of some of our polling stations.

18. I am suggesting to you that, your conduct was unlawful as a Director of Elections!
Ans: My Lord, this suggestion by counsel is illegitimate. I disagree, my Lord.
The suggestion is unacceptable. Because, there was no collation of any results, so there cannot be any conduct in relation to me.

After this very question, the counsel for 2nd Respondent, Emmanuel Addai Esq announced to the open court that he has ended his cross-examination of the Petitioner’s star witness, Hameed Zakaria Bin Laden.

Accordingly, the Petitioner’s first witness was hereby discharged fully.
Case is hereby adjourned to next week Monday and Tuesday, 17th and 18th January respectively.

Source: africaneditors.com