The Dean of Law Faculty at UPSA has described former president John Mahama's statements on the Supreme Court’s ruling giving the EC green light to compile as disturbing.

Ernest Kofi Abosti noted that Mr Mahama may be the only former president, non-incumbent rerunning for elections to cast “aspersions at state institutions.”

“It is disturbing because as a former president, he has been in the thick of affairs, he has been in the vanguard guardian of our constitution, he has been the leader of enforcing the laws of this nation.”

“Therefore when he speaks from the perspective of someone who has been that close and chastising institutions in creating a sense that these institutions may have been compromised by a sitting president or by government, then invariably, one gets worried,” he said on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday.

The NDC remains adamant and challenged the need for a new voters' register in the apex court, asking that even if a new register should be compiled, the existing voter IDs should be accepted as identification documents.

The Court in its ruling Thursday said the EC can go ahead with the compilation and that it should be done in accordance with C.I. 126 which restricts the identification documents to passports and Ghana cards only.

Mahama, in reacting to this noted this ruling is disappointing for all Ghanaians who already have the voters’ ID and have to queue for one again in a time of a raging pandemic.

But Mr Kofi Abotsi stressed that while conspiracy theories come and go, he is worried about the “bastardisation effect of the comments.”

“Conspiracies may end up being true or partly true or partly false. People listen to them and just move on but when you have a former President making these comments and from the position of being a former President in leading a major political party into an election making these comments then it is sobering and sort of creates a sense of worry.”

“We have to be realistic about these things. These conspiracy theories and suspicions of remote controls of our state institutions are nothing new and the generality of Ghanaians is by and large, have some suspicions surrounding these but once they remain in the realm of suspicion they remain where they are,” the UPSA Dean of Law said.

“But if you have someone like John Mahama in his capacity as a former president going into an election making these statements then it moves from the realm of suspicion.

Mr Kofi Abotsi advised that such comments be toned down going forward because there is always a danger of bastardising them.

“I think our institutions have come a long way. They are certainly not perfect but there’s always a danger of bastardising them.”