Leaking pink sheets can’t contain any evidence

Thursday, June 20, 2013

My good friends, the exchanges concerning the NPP petitioners’ pink sheet exhibits continue to dominate political discussions. I want to wade in to say that when the NPP petitioners claim that all is well with their pink sheet exhibits and that the counsel for the petitioners are on a wild goose chase by asking for what the KPMG is doing, they are only trying to pump themselves up with an optimism that has no basis in reality.

Too many questionable circumstances surrounding this pink sheet exhibit controversy leave me in no doubt that appearances being put up by the counsel and spokespeople for the petitioners are now glaringly deceptive. They can continue shifting the goal post to deceive only their own followers!

PREMISE 

The NDC claims that the NPP has lied about the pink sheet exhibits, accusing it of irregularizing the issue just to sustain its self-serving political propaganda concerning Election 2012. 

The counsel for the respondents have complained that they were not given the quantum of exhibits that Dr. Bawumia and Philip Addison have insisted all along. They put the figure at 11,842.

The KPMG has been recounting and auditing those pink sheets, and is said to be putting together a report on its findings for the Supreme Court on Monday, June 24.

STATE OF AFFAIRS

Even though the KPMG hasn’t given any official figure on its findings, the Daily Guide newspaper published a report that the total figure of exhibits stood at 13,900, which the NPP’s legal team and spokespersons hailed as confirming the petitioner’s claim to have submitted more to the Supreme Court than the counsel for the petitioners were claiming.

In another report on June 19, the Daily Guide said that the “KPMG found 11,842 as per the affidavit filed, but the actual count of pink sheets exhibited was 13,928 bringing a difference of 1,082.”

We note also that there was a report that a box of exhibits out of the total in the custody of Presiding Judge William Atuguba had gone missing but found later. So, the Daily Guide noted that Justice Atuguba’s pink sheets, after counting so far, have turned out to be far in excess of 9,800, thus confirming the number the petitioners claimed they supplied to the court.

THE MOTHER OF ALL QUESTIONS

If the petitioners were definitive that they submitted 11,842 pink sheets to the Court through its Registrar and the KPMG’s work says that the total is 13,928, should the NPP people be happy that their claims have been vindicated?

CONCLUSION

Right-away, if we accept the 13,928 being bandied about as the total number of pink sheet exhibits counted by the KPMG, it is doubtless that the petitioners have questions to answer.

Of course, the huge difference between the two figures will mean that the petitioners are liable to perjury—telling lies purposely to deceive the court (regardless of the anomalies, mislabellings, duplications, triplications, quadruplications, etc., already established about the exhibits). It has its own implications but may not immediately mean that the petition will be dismissed just because of it.

In any case, it casts a huge cloud of doubt on the petitioners’ credibility; and in court cases, credibility counts a lot. My take on the matter is simple: As soon as the total figure to be given by the KPMG disproves what the petitioners insist is the quantum that they submitted, it will go a long way to tarnish the reputation of Dr. Bawumia, Addison, and all others in the NPP who have so far dug in on 11,842.

Their claim that the KPMG’s work will prove that the counsel for the respondents are on a wild goose chase won’t really wash with anybody. They are making that claim because they are confident that the tally will either be 11,842 or more than it. 

So far, the Daily Guide report has broken down the various categories and confirmed that the tally is more than 11,842 in the various categories. So, who will be telling the truth, after all?

The respondents’ counsel have nothing to lose. If the tally falls short of 11,842, they will stand vindicated because their claim is that they haven’t been given what the petitioners insist on. If the tally goes beyond 11,842 too, they will thump their chests to conclude that the petitioners are liars. 

The burden is on the head of the petitioners!! That is why I am amazed that they are optimistic of having a headway in this pink sheet exhibit controversy. They shouldn't forget that their entire petition is based on the pink sheets; and as they have put it themselves, "The evidence is in the pink sheets!"

Now, the pink sheets are in serious doubt and contention. Can they still retain their self-confidence and optimism? Why, when the pink sheets are in doubt?

And as my good friend puts it, the other interesting aspect of this whole case is this: in court, they are talking about violations, irregularities and malpractices but talk to them outside the court and they are talking about fraud, rigging and stealing of votes by President Mahama and the Electoral Commission.

In concert with their cunning nature, they are happily deceiving their benighted followers outside the perimeters of the Supreme Court and the real contents of their petition while telling the Court different stories here and there, depending on their changing moods!!

The different stories that they’ve told us about the pink sheet exhibits will finally expose them for what they are. That is probably why they have begun turning their bazooka on Justice Atuguba so that when the verdict goes against them, they will have a ready answer for it by blaming him for their woes.

But the real cause of their woes lies in the electoral decisions made by the majority of the electorate who rejected their Akufo-Addo at Election 2012. All that they’ve been doing ever since, expending energy crying over spilt milk and reinforcing their “All die be die” grand agenda through comic reliefs by way of ridiculous pronouncements made by their spokespeople, ably led by Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, won’t change anything.

Once their fate was se3aled at the polls, it will remain sealed till Election 2016 adds more to prove to them that their “book politics” doesn’t wash with the electorate. For now, their winding stories about the pink sheets remains a source of amusement to many observers.

As we wait for the official report from the KPMG, we can only hope that its findings will help the Court streamline its procedures for hearing the petition so that it can run on smoothly.

I shall return…

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