NPP Must Offer Unqualified Apology To Ghanaians

By Margaret Jackson

May 1, 2013

If most Ghanaians have soon forgotten how the NPP leadership nearly torched the country during the 2012 Elections, I still have vivid terrifying memories. If Ghanaians are pretending that they do not remember the lies concocted by the NPP to mar the beauty of last year’s elections, I still do.

Readers will recall that on December 8, 2012 when voting was taking place in some polling stations that had some challenges during December 7 election, the NPP out of the blue spewed fumes all over Accra. And had it not been for Devine intervention, our beloved country may have degenerated into something else.

When the results of certain constituencies started trickling in and the NPP realized that they were losing badly in most of the regions, they devised a diabolical plan. Without any foundation, the NPP suddenly incited their supporters to besiege the premises of STL, an Israeli company at Dzorwulu in Accra, with wild claims that the Electoral Commission had entered into a secret deal with STL to aid in the transmission of the election results with the view to tilting the results in favour of the NDC.

It created a tensed atmosphere which put the country on the brink as scores of military and police personnel stormed the offices of STL to curtail any possible bloodshed. No amount of explanation could cool down the pent up feelings of the NPP supporters as they persisted and pushed that STL was involved in transmogrifying of the election results trickling in. And the NPP claimed that it was being done to favour the NDC and President John Mahama.

The situation was so volatile that the AU Observer Mission led by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo rushed to the place to help reason with the NPP supporters, but to no avail. The Ghana National Peace Council led by Most Rev Prof Emmanuel Asante, was also forced to dart to the scene to help avoid any potential havoc.

That was no all. The NPP also succeeded in bussing some of their supporters to cordon off the offices of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) threatening to burn it down and lynch Mr Kofi Portuphy, the Director of NADMO and Election Director of the NDC, for doing something uncanny on the election results at the offices of NADMO.

The angry NPP supporters who were acting under strict instructions from their leadership prevented anybody from either entering or leaving the offices of NADMO and STL, threatening to spill blood if their so-called ‘orders’ were flouted. In case you could not immediately recollect your memory on the situation on December 8, 2012, I have just given you a quick run-down of the situation that the NPP led the country into on that day.

Even when tensions eventually subsided and normalcy was restored, the NPP leadership led by its defeated vice-presidential candidate, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia, still believed that STL was indeed engaged by the EC to turn the fortunes of the 2012 Elections in favour of the NDC and President Mahama.

The NPP felt so strong about this false evidence that when they filed their petition challenging the results of the 2012 Election they cited the incident at the STL as one of their key evidence. In fact, the NPP were so sure of this false believe that they even repeated it when they filed their affidavits with the Supreme Court claiming that STL engaged in fraud to convert the results into bigger figures in favour of President Mahama.

But on Tuesday April 30, 2013, when Mr Tsatsu Tsikata who was cross-examining Dr Mahamadu Bawumia, NPP’s evidence in chief, sought to bring the STL issue up, to the surprise of everybody in court and millions of Ghanaians who were watching the proceedings, the NPP blinked. Their lead counsel, Philip “Panther” Addison suddenly sprung up and blurred out that they have abandoned that allegation against the STL due to lack of evidence.

In case you did not hear me well, I would like to repeat that the NPP shocked everybody by stating that they have deleted the allegation/s against STL because they have realized that they were making just mere allegation/s without any foundation. They don’t have any proof to back that allegation against STL. Yet, the NPP were so passionate about their so-called evidence against STL which would have resulted into bloodshed but for the timely intervention of the police and military personnel.

No one knows when the NPP came to the realization that their so-called allegation against STL did not have legs. But even if they came to those conclusions on Tuesday April 30 that they acted in bad faith by bussing their supporters to engage in acts which could have imploded into chaotic situations with adverse consequences to life and property, they owe Ghanaians an unqualified apology.

You don’t act on mere hearsay and bus your supporters to offices of innocent people to cause mayhem. You don’t send your supporters under a false premise when don’t have any hard core evidence to back your claims. You don’t lie to your supporters and send them to besiege offices because you are losing the election and want to find scapegoats’.

Ghana could have imploded just on the basis of that lie planted by the leadership of the NPP. Many innocent citizens could have lost their precious lives as a result of that false information. Therefore, if the NPP leadership have seen the green light and have dropped their allegation/s levelled against the STL, it sounds to reason that the NPP leadership must muster the courage and inform Ghanaians that they were dead wrong in accusing STL and misleading the whole country.

The NPP in addition to apologizing to Ghanaians must also do same to the management and workers of STL. The NPP must not forget to offer the same apology to Mr Portuphy and the workers of NADMO. The NPP goofed big-time on this one, and that goof could have had adverse and irreparable consequences.

We wait to see what the NPP will say to Ghanaians. No half-baked apology will be enough to cancel out the lie that the NPP sown to confuse Ghanaians. As the SC case progresses, we are getting closer to exposing another lie that has been sown into the minds of some Ghanaians, mainly the NPP supporters, that the 2012 Presidential Election was stunted in favour of President Mahama who won it handsomely.

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