National Security Under Fire - Over Pink Sheets Brouhaha

The Judicial Secretary, Justice Alex B Poku Acheampong, Friday stated that the Supreme Court did not need additional security to protect the pink sheets submitted by the petitioners in evidence in the ongoing election petition challenging the result of the 2012 presidential election. He described as �unsolicited� and �out of the norm�, the presence of operatives of the National Security at the premises of the Supreme Court on the evening of Thursday, after the court had ordered an audit of the pink sheets. �We don�t need any protection in the evenings. We are okay with the protection our own people are offering,� Justice Opoku maintained. National security operatives reportedly went to the court, demanding access to the registry, to enable them protect the pink sheets presented in evidence by the petitioners challenging the result of the 2012 presidential election. The incident occurred a few hours after the President of the panel of judges hearing the election petition, Justice William Atuguba, had directed accounting and advisory firm, KPMG, to conduct an audit on the pink sheets. The incident has attracted widespread condemnation from many people, who think the action of the National Security was unwarranted. Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, insists it was �terribly wrong� for personnel of the National Security to move to the Court �uninvited�, to offer assistance when officials of the court had said they were satisfied with existing security arrangements. �There was no need for duplication if the judicial system offers protection for the pink sheets,� Mr Baako maintained on �Newsfile� at the weekend. But the National Security Coordinator, Gbevlo Lartey, has defended the act, insisting that it was important for operatives of his unit to be at the Supreme Court to offer additional protection for the pink sheets in view of how sensitive they had become as far as the ongoing election petition hearing is concerned. Meanwhile, Asare �Gabby� Otchere-Darko, Executive Director of the Danquah Institute, has alleged that the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, was the one who instructed the security operatives to go to the Supreme Court premises. �You know who invited them, Asiedu Nketia! The General Secretary invited National Security. I�m sure he made a phone call. This is not speculation. Asiedu Nketia said... on Asempa FM that he called Gbevlo Lartey to say that 'look you should bring men to come and protect the pink sheets,'� Gabby added while speaking on Citi FM�s �Big Issues.� Virtually confirming the allegation made by the Executive Director of DI, a member of the NDC legal team, Kojogah Adawudu, jumped to the defence of the national security operatives, claiming that they simply being proactive. Mr Adawudu gave some reasons to justify the action of the national security operatives: �We were in this country when a substance was sent to court; it was admitted as exhibits, was taken to the exhibit room then they asked that the whole thing should be tested the next day. When it was tested, what did we find?� "We were in this country when even at the Police headquarters things got missing from the exhibit room because we felt that the security was okay and nobody was going to go there. So if the security is being proactive, we say we don�t need national security.�