�You Don�t Need Planning To Get Asiedu Nketia To Contradict Himself�

After being subjected to barely half a day of cross-examination, the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, Johnson Asiedu Nketia�s credibility has been placed on the chopping board, and for the petitioners, the man has exposed himself as a contradictory figure, the spokesperson for the petitioners has suggested. Mr Buabeng Asamoah indicated on Joy News, Tuesday evening, that Mr Asiedu Nketia was not a hard nut to crack and therefore �you don�t need too much planning to get Mr Asiedu Nketia to contradict himself�. Asiedu Nketia who is the key witness for the first and third respondents in the ongoing election petition hearing at the Supreme Court gave contradictory answers when he was answering questions bordering on over-voting, that was Mr Buabeng Asamoah�s observation. He recalled that Mr Nketia, popularly known as General Mosquito, had earlier told the court that by his definition of over-voting, the so-called irregularity did not occur in the 2012 presidential election. He had defined over-voting as votes cast at a polling station exceeding the number of registered voters as contained in the voters� register. However, when confronted with one pink sheet, he admitted that on the face of it, it points to over-voting, but he thought it is an error and would want the figure crosschecked with what is in the voters� register. For Buabeng Asamoah, the admission on the face of the pink sheet only is a testament, as being watched by the world, that the petitioners� lawyer Philip Addison was able to push the witness to �turn himself round his own finger�. Asiedu Nketia �contradicted himself several times�, Mr Buabeng Asomoah remarked. Nevertheless, he conceded that whether the witness contradicted himself or not, it is for the court to ascertain and give its verdict. Consistent; fantastic On the other hand, Mr Victor Kojogah Adawudu, a member of the NDC legal team, told Joy News he �totally disagrees� with Asamoah Buabeng�s assessment of their star witness. On his part, Asiedu Nketia �has been consistent with what he understands by over-voting�. But agreed that since the definition of over-voting differs on both sides, the judges would be in a better position to pronounce judgement on who is right in definition. Overall, the witness �has been fantastic�, he gave him thumbs up. �I think Mr Asiedu Nketia, with the questions, he has explained and has gone further, and that shows that he knows the terrain, he knows his stuff.� Showing the stuff he is made of might have mesmerized Mr Addison since in the view of Adawudu the counsel was caught up in a situation where his �questions where not forthcoming� as against the petitioners� expectation that the questions would be fired �in series�. This, he said, disputes perception created before that �we were going to see some fireworks coming from [the cross-examination but] we did not see much of that�we were told Asiedu Nketia would be grilled but we did not see him being grilled. We saw the opposite�� Comments on over 13,900 pink sheets reserved Touching on the ongoing auditing of the pink sheets, Mr Adawudu confirmed that the referee, KPMG, has found over 13,900 pink sheets. The petitioners claimed they filed 11,842 pink sheets, but the respondents said less than that was received; the discrepancy caused the court to order for the auditing. But until KPMG lays its report, the respondents will �reserve all the comments�, he said. �We have more than what we expected and what the petitioners said they have brought.�