Court Orders Afari Gyan To Produce Details Of Where Pink Sheets Came From

An evasive Afari Gyan was on Tuesday directed by the Supreme court to produce details of where pink sheets used during the 2012 general elections were produced from and the means by which they came into the country.

In the course of crossing examining Dr. Afari Gyan, Lead Counsel for the Petitioners, Lawyer Philip Addison sought to know from him whether he told the court pink sheets used in last year’s elections, arrived in the country by sea.

But Dr. Afari Gyan invalidated lawyer Addison’s statement by informing the court that he never said the pink sheets came by sea.

According to him, he did not give any such emphatic evidence and explained that what he said yesterday was electoral materials bought from abroad are usually brought by sea and not by air because it was relatively cheaper by sea and “we prefer them to come by ship”.

Pressed further by the counsel for the petitioners to be emphatic and tell the court the means by which the pink sheets arrived in the country, Dr. Afari Gyan bluntly replied that “my Lords, I don’t know”.

Asked if he can cross check and provide that piece of evidence (the means by which the pink sheets arrived into the country), his lawyer, Quarshie Idun, jumped unto his defense and told the court that he is objecting to the question on grounds of relevance.

In an address to the judges, Lawyer Idun maintained that the burden of proof lies solely on the petitioners and not on the Respondents, for that reason had no business ordering the witness for the second respondent to produce documents which would merit them.

He recounted that to go by the direction of the petitioners, they would end up disproving their own case and that would strengthen the case of the petitioners.

“Relevance is the main grounds of objecting to this my lord”, he said.

But lawyer Addison countered his objection by insisting that “my lord, I haven’t asked the witness to produce any documents. I asked him a question and he said he did not know… I simply asked if he can get that information. It is for him to say yes or no. there is no need to produce any document. I have not asked for a document to be produced”, he said.

The banter came to an end after the Judges decided to take some time to confer on the objection and give a ruling.

By 6-3 majority, the objection over ruled and thus Justice Atuguba directed Dr. Afari Gyan to do his best to produce details about how the pink sheets which were used in the 2012 elections, arrived into the country.

Source: Chris Joe Quaicoe/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana