“I am challenging him to substantiate it otherwise we are going to make a report to the registrar of the Supreme Court that he should rather be arrested and brought before the court for contempt,” threatened Prof Mike Oquaye.
The former Deputy Speaker of Parliament was speaking to a recent Press Conference held by the General Secretary of the ruling party, NDC.
General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketiah at a press conference held on Wednesday, asked the police to arrest, running mate of the NPP, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia for allegedly falsifying information about the Togolese voters' register.
According to the NDC scribe, “The reason why we are calling for the arrest of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia is that – I am not a lawyer – but I have heard people say that if you falsify public documents with the intentions of deceiving people, our laws should have a way of dealing with you…
…At the Supreme Court they printed fake pink sheets and tendered them in as evidence. All that was done was that the Supreme Court just rejected them. Nothing has happened up to date and then they come to deceive the Electoral Commission, again, by printing a fake Togolese register, put people's pictures on the register and present them as Togolese and presented some documentation, writing French on those things claiming it is Togolese register. How can a PhD holder, who wants to be vice president, sink that low? And, so, if in a democracy if there is no remedy to such things then woe betides the whole country. Because anybody can just go and do a photo-shop and then come and present it as the truth”.
But Prof Mike Ocquaye, who is the NPP's Leagl and Constitutional Committee Chairman, stated in an interview on PEACE FM's Morning show ‘Kokrokoo’ that Asiedu Nketiah has denigrated the work of the Supreme Court by the content of his press statement and should be cited for contempt.
“He should be arrested…it is palpable falsehood. Nobody manufactured the data gathered; all were genuine so why should he say that? If he has said this in public, I am challenging him to substantiate it otherwise we are going to make a report to the registrar of the Supreme Court that he should rather be arrested and brought before the court for contempt. He should be ready…he should be invited by appropriate authority. He is saying things that are supposed to have been part of the Supreme Court hearing; which is total falsehood. The Supreme Court Judges agreed that there should be electoral reforms…everything he said has no basis... This is just a diversionary tactics…they just want to take this country for a ride," he said.
Prof Ocquaye also chastised the Electoral Commission (EC) for indicating that Togo refused to give out their Voters’ register.
According to him, the EC should have been specific in their demand instead of asking ‘another country to give out their entire voters’ register for verification'.
“It’s either the EC lacked the administrative processing or they are intentionally doing that. This is never done…what kind of cheeky request will that be? Some people want to take this republic for granted.
You send them a specific request and they will give you a specific answer, you cannot ask them to give the entire voters’ register. It is never done. They should start the process again and that is why they should leave this matter to Interpol”
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