Akufo-Addo�s Prot�g� Pushes EC To Do Illegal Things

Credible information picked up by The General Telegraph indicates that some protégés of the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo are hell bent on ensuring that the electoral processes at the Electoral Commission are changed to satisfy their whims and caprices.

This paper has gathered the two individuals, Mr Abu Ramadan, former national Youth Organizer of the Peoples National Convention (PNC) and Mr Evans Nimako, a staunch member of the NPP who took the EC to court seeking a declaration that the current voter’s register should be declared null and void, have moved a step forward to ensure that their request is granted.

The decision of the duo who are strongly believe to be the errand boys of Nana Akufo-Addo came following a directive by the court for them to find means of addressing their concerns.

According our information, the two through their lawyer, Nana Asante Bediatuo, swiftly wrote to other parties urging them to make themselves available as early as possible to help advance their course before the hearing of the substantive case at the court.

Nana Asante Bediatuo, counsel for the two Akufo-Addo’s boys, in a letter dated March 4, 2016 with special reference to Lawyer Thadeous Sory under the headline, “Re-validation of the current voters register,” urged the others not to waste time to arrange for their meeting.

He said he was instructed to write for and on behalf of Abu Ramadan and Evans Nimako (our client) plaintiffs in suit No.J1/14/2016 Supreme Court of Ghana intituled Abu Ramadan and Anor vrs EC and the Attorney General.

Advancing his case, Nana Bediatuo said when the parties appeared before the apex court on Thursday March 3, 2016, there was an appeal from the entire bench to the parties in the said suit to meet to find ways of bringing into the force the plaintiffs alternative reliefs to wit, “An order compelling the EC to audit the current voters register through the validation of each person currently on the register, to remove the names of unqualified persons and deceased persons and to provide each validated register with biometric evidence thereof and also to strike out the names of those persons who failed to validate their registration within the stipulated period,” adding that such should be done before the conduct of any new registration exercise or public elections of referendum in Ghana.

To this end, he urged Thadeous Sory and his group to ensure that they meet and strategize.

He continued, “Pursuant to the directions of the court, our clients have instructed us to propose any day next week for us to meet with your client over the matter aforementioned subject to your convenience. We would be very grateful if this could be resolved amicably even before the hearing of the substantive suit,” he said.

It would be recalled that lawyers for the former PNC Youth Organizer, Abu Ramadan, have withdrawn a suit that sought to ask the Supreme Court to declare the current voters’ register as null and void for the November elections.

The lawyers, led by Nana Asante Bediatuo, said their decision is to enable them make some changes to their previous suit due to some additional information they have gathered from the Electoral Commission (EC).

The Supreme Court panel presided over by the Chief Justice Georgina Wood, granted their request and struck out the case with the chance to re-file. Abu Ramadan, in December last year, filed a suit at the Supreme Court demanding that the 2012 voters’ register be declared null and void. According to him, the Supreme Court’s ruling that the National Health Insurance Card was an illegal form of identification for voters register further strengthened his suit.

Mr. Ramadan wants the court to compel the Electoral Commission to compile a fresh voters’ register before any major election or referendum is conducted in the country.

Mr. Ramadan’s suit followed the Electoral Commission’s rejection of a request by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) to compile a new voters’ register because according to them, the current one, is flawed with names of foreigners and minors.