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Opinions of Tuesday, 14 May 2013

Columnist: Okoampa-Ahoofe, Kwame

Atuguba Court Has Power To Stop Tsikata

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

The rather unfortunate observation by the president of the Legal Advocacy Foundation (LAF) that Mr. Tsatsu "The Thief" Tsikata is likely to spend years cross-examining the second respondent in the Akufo-Addo petition challenging the legitimacy of President John Dramani Mahama is just that, sheer hogwash, as Americans are wont to say (See "Tsatsu's Cross-Examination Will Take Years - Lawyer"TV3 News/Ghanaweb.com 5/11/13).

Dr. Maurice Ampaw's observation is hogwash because it unwisely presumes the Atuguba-presided Supreme Court panel of jurists hearing the New Patriotic Party (NPP) petition to be too weak-minded and weak-willed to call the at once brash, brazen and brassy Mr. Tsikata to order. Nothing could be farther from the truth, gauging from the admirable manner in which the justices hearing the petition have thus far conducted themselves.

To be certain, about the only issue that presently needs resolving in order for the Atuguba Court to promptly wrap up its hearings is the pink sheets. Once the number of the latter tendered in evidence by Messrs. Mahamudu Bawumia and Philip Addison has been objectively and credibly established, we may all rest assured of the fact that the climax of the hearings would have been scaled, although, in reality, the latter point of the judicial proceedings was reached shortly after hearings commenced, when the former Deputy-Governor of the Bank of Ghana clearly and eloquently established beyond the proverbial shadow of any doubt that, indeed, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, the Electoral Commissioner, had colluded with President Mahama to rig the outcome of Election 2012 in favor of the latter.

As already pointed out in a previous article, whatever the outcome of the KPMG auditing of the pink sheets, the key to the forensic and clinical establishment of the abject corruption and massive rigging that characterized Election 2012, the onus will still squarely rest with the Atuguba Court, which appears to have failed to promptly confirm the exact number of pink sheets tendered in evidence by the NPP petitioners.

Needless to say, the strength of the validity of the NPP petition is more qualitative than quantitative - and it is the abject failure of counsel for the respondents to fully appreciate this fact that appears to be giving the latter false hope that they have any chance to effectively nullify Dr. Bawumia's epic performance on the stand. The fact of the matter is that they don't even have a China-man's chance.

Some cynical critics have rather lamely questioned why the New Patriotic Party petitioners had also not included the results of the parliamentary election in their suit. The Tsikata runaround ought to by now have amply informed such cynics about the nonesuch genius of Messrs. Akufo-Addo, Bawumia, Addison, Obetsebi-Lamptey and the entire supporting cast of the petitioners.

Then also, an impudent Kpegah partisan has recently pooh-poohed Nana Akufo-Addo's clearly stated objective that his unprecedented lawuit against President Mahama and the National Democratic Congress has primarily to do with "the improvement of Ghanaian democracy." Well, what this Brooklyn, New York "Ghetto Public Intellectual" Trokosi SOB seems to be too stolid to fully appreciate is the unmistakable fact that the improvement of Ghanaian democracy necessitates the logical and constitutional removal of the illegitimately installed President John Dramani Mahama.

What the preceding observation means is that the key operatives of the main opposition New Patriotic Party ought to be prepared to fiercely battle for power against the NDC usurpers of democratic and constitutional governance. It is only such preparedness that can readily afford unfettered meaningfulness or significance to the ongoing Supreme Court petition hearings.

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*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Department of English
Nassau Community College of SUNY
Garden City, New York
May 11, 2012
E-mail: [email protected]
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