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The National Service Secretariat (NSS) yesterday issued a disclaimer on the woman at the centre of a raging controversy over the signing of some Electoral Commission (EC) pink sheets in the Savulugu-Nanton District of the Northern Region. Twenty-nine-year-old Salamatu Osmanu was arrested and handed over to the police at the weekend by some youth in the area when she attempted to lure some EC presiding officers who supervised last year�s general elections to sign �pink sheets� of the Commission. Reports reaching DAILY GUIDE indicated the directive to get presiding officers to sign the documents were from the EC headquarters in Accra. DAILY GUIDE learnt that text messages were sent to electoral officers to get all pink sheets in the custody of the commission signed. The text message had been given to the police as evidence. Interestingly, the issue of unsigned pink sheets is a major part of the irregularities the flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo, his running mate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and party chairman, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey are seeking to prove, as they contend that these affected the conduct and outcome of the 2012 presidential elections and for which the Supreme Court is being asked to overturn the declaration of President John Dramani Mahama as winner of the elections conducted by the EC. But a statement issued by the NSS, which has the loquacious Vincent Kuagbenu as its boss and signed by its acting head of Public Relations, Felix Gyamfi, stated, �Management of the Ghana National Service Scheme wishes to state categorically that the said Salamatu Osmanu is not a National Service person as reported.� Instead, the Secretariat indicated that �Miss Osmanu Salamatu only did her mandatory National Service with the Electoral Commission in the Savelugu/Nanton Municipality during the 2011/2012 Service Year, which officially ended on 31st August 2012.� Salamatu, who has since been granted bail together with two of her accomplices namely the Deputy Regional Director of the EC, Godfrey Okeley and the Savelugu/Nanton District Electoral Officer, Benjamin Akumani Akanda, is said to hold a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Integrated Development Studies from the University of Development Studies in Tamale. Justification According to the National Service outfit, its records showed that she duly signed and picked up her National Service Certificate with Serial Number NSSDW11511119025 on 11th January, 2013. In view of this, the Secretariat emphasised that �she is therefore not a Service Person� insisting that �the claim that she is one by the media is untrue.� Interestingly, the head office of EC has denied instructing its staff or individuals they contracted as Returning Officers during the 2012 elections to get Presiding Officers who did not append their signatures to the pink sheets to do so now. Even though the police have commenced investigations into the pink sheets signing saga, reports said there is mounting pressure from police headquarters and government for officers handling the case to treat it with care in order not to cause any disaffection for the present administration. Emerging Details Information available to DAILY GUIDE indicates that Benjamin Akumani Akanda, the District electoral officer for Savulugu/Nanton, is a student at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA). He was said to have been in school when he received a text message from his boss, the Northern regional director, Sylvester Kanyi to come up north to get the signatures, an evidence he is reported to have since shown to the police on his phone. He was then said to have also contracted Salamatu to assist him in getting the Presiding Officers to sign the pink sheets, having worked with her before. Apparently, it was the Regional Director of the EC, Sylvester Kanyi who issued instructions for his Deputy to get the Returning officers to go round and get those who did not sign the pink sheets to do so whilst he left for the Ashanti regional capital, Kumasi, asking his deputy, Godfrey Okeley, to follow up. There were a number of reports over the weekend of attempts by officials of the EC to get some Presiding Officers, especially in the Northern Region, to now sign pink sheets used during the disputed elections, two months after the elections. One such incident which got to the attention of DAILY GUIDE happened in Walewale where the Presiding officer, a certain Abdul Basit Musah, was approached by the Returning Officer for the EC, one Richard Ayamba, to append his signature to the document. Abdul Basit however declined to sign.