Your concerns are genuine; we’ll look into them’ – Jean Mensa allegedly told Rojo Mettle-Nunoo

Robert Joseph (Rojo) Mettle-Nunoo, one of the witnesses of the Petitioner in the ongoing hearing at the Supreme Court of Ghana has, in his witness statement, explained the interactions he had with Jean Mensa, the Returning Officer at the Electoral Commission’s (EC) headquarters on December 8, 2020.

“At the point when I first went to the office of the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission on 8 December 2020, I wanted to bring to her attention that what was going on in the ‘Strongroom’ could not lead to a declaration…as she had promised the country.

“She actually told me in response that the concerns I had raised were genuine and she would have them looked into,” Rojo Mettle-Nunoo said on paragraph 13 of his witness statement.

The Chairperson of the EC had promised to declare the results of the December 7, 2020, elections 24 hours after voting because the Commission claimed it had put in place systems that should help in sending election results to the EC strongroom on time.

But as of that initial deadline, the “Strong Room” process had not yet started since the regional results had been delayed.

This deadline was then extended to 48-hours, but this 48-hour time limit the EC Chairperson set could also not materialise.

Rojo Mettle-Nunoo, who was at the EC strongroom and had noticed some errors with the figures being sent into the strongroom, said in his witness statement to the Supreme Court that he drew the attention of Jean Mensa, the Returning Officer for the presidential election, to what was happening at the “Strongroom”.

Rojo Mettle-Nunoo added that when he got to the EC headquarters on December 9, 2020, for the real collation to begin -there had been a 24-hour delay with virtually no results being received at the EC headquarters, a fact publicly claimed by the media- he was informed by Jean Mensa of a pending meeting with local and international observers, media and civil society groups, and the EC, to address the concerns he had raised about the conduct of the election.

He was further informed by Jean Mensa that the petitioner had met members of the National Peace Council and some concerns had been addressed.

He, therefore, did not want to raise any concerns which might contradict what John Mahama may have consented to, hence taking everyone backwards.

The witness further averred that having worked as a consultant to the Institute of Economic Affairs for many years, where Jean Mensa was the boss, he had no reason to doubt her. This fact, he claimed, is what made him take Jean Mensa’s advice to go and consult with John Mahama, with the further promise by Jean Mensah to arrange a dispatch rider to escort he Mettle-Nunoo and Kpessa-White, the other NDC agent back to the Strong Room.

John Dramani Mahama, who was the flagbearer of the NDC is disputing the election results as declared by the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission on December 9, 2020.

He has already presented two of his witnesses, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, NDC General Secretary and Dr. Michael Kpessah-Whyte, who was an NDC agent at the EC’s ‘Strongroom’. Both men have been cross-examined by counsels for the 1st and 2nd Respondents.

On Wednesday, February 3, Tsatsu Tsikata, lead counsel for the Petitioner prayed the court for permission to file a new witness statement.

Tsikata explained that a possible witness had some health complications and due to the confidentiality of that person’s condition, the court should meet in chambers for that discussion. The court duly obliged him.

It is not yet clear whether that matter was related to Rojo Mettle-Nunoo, and hence whether Mettle-Nunoo, a former Deputy Minister of Health, will mount the witness box on Friday to be cross-examined.