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The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has asked former President John Dramani Mahama and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to apologise to Ghanaians.

This follows an audio recording containing the voice of the NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia alleging that the NDC didn't have concrete evidence to fight their 2020 election petition in the Supreme Court.

"When we were doing the collation, the system you (Chairman Ofosu Ampofo) brought saying it is robust and strong, when we collated five Regions; we are told it has crashed. This is the truth. So, when we decided to the court, we agreed to do manual collation. So, we gathered some people to collect the pick sheets and our Chairman sat on the Collation Committee that he will handle the collation. He went for some University people who did some shoddy work. When the time was up for me to stand in the dock, the results that they gave me if I use it to defend the case, I will be disgraced so we couldn't send those results to the court.

"They then said we should go to lawyer Tsikata. So we carried all the documents and presented them to lawyer Tsikata. These are things we shouldn't be saying publicly. When we gave them to him and in the next morning, after he had perused them, he replied us saying take back your grasscutter. If these are the things you are sending to the court, go and look for your lawyer because I can't do this work. This is why when we went to court and they said where are my results, I replied that I didn't bring any results. I believe you heard that; I don't know how to lie. I am saying if I become the Chairman, all this nonsense will not happen," General Mosquito as he is popularly called, said in the leaked audio recording.

Meanwhile, he has confirmed that indeed he made those comments on Peace FM when asked by Kwami Sefa Kayi on the 'kokrokoo' programme.

NPP Demand An Apology

The NPP in a statement signed by its Communications Director, Richard Ahiagbah, said the "conduct of the NDC leadership is not only unpatriotic but also very disgraceful and unconscionable”.

“They virtually asked them to seek redress on the streets because the Electoral Commission (EC) had cheated them, which their supporters also blindly followed, terrorising innocent Ghanaians, burning markets and destroying private and public property. They also wasted time and resources of the court for months when they knew they had no case. That conduct alone could have plunged the nation into chaos and made nonsense of the enviable reputation of Ghana as the beacon of democracy in Africa,” it said.

"That was not all; the NDC Members of Parliament (MPs) led by Haruna Iddrisu, also hit the street and stormed the EC premises, knowing all along that they had lost the election fair and square. On the strength of the NDC's own confession, the NPP invites Civil Society Organisations, political watchers and indeed all well-meaning Ghanaians to join the NPP in demanding an apology from former President John Mahama and the NDC leadership for this disservice to the country, which risked our democracy”. 

"Our country has come a long way in our democratic journey, and as stakeholders, we are all expected to protect and defend this enviable feat which has made Ghana, a shining example to other African countries and the world.

“With their confessed deceit in the 2020 Election Petition, the next time the NDC claims they have been cheated in any election, no one should take their word for it, especially in 2024,” the statement added.