The third witness for the petitioner in the ongoing election petition hearing has insisted that the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC) Jean Mensa “sacked” him from the strong room (National Collation Centre).

Rojo Mettle-Nunoo told the court during his cross-examination by the EC’s Lawyer Justice Amenuvor, Monday that before the declaration of the results of the Presidential elections, EC's Chairperson Jean Mensa had asked him to confer with the petitioner John Dramani Mahama concerning some anomalies they had witnessed.

This, he says, happened in the early hours of December 9.

“The EC sacked me from the strongroom, that was the first time I left the strongroom. It has never happened before, in previous elections, I stayed there for 72 hours.”   

“I left the strongroom the second time to seek an audience with the Electoral Commissioner. It was somewhere between 3 o’clock and 4 o’clock,” he added.

Dr Micheal Kpessa-Whyte, a colleague of Mettle-Nunoo and second witness of the petitioner on February 2, initially made this claim during his cross-examination last week, saying that they complied with the request by the EC Chair to see the petitioner, Mr Mahama, and as such left the national collation centre.

Mr Mettle-Nunoo who gave his testimony via Zoom, in the presence of a judicial officer stated that Jean Mensa can testify that “she directed us to the petitioner, she knew that she told us she will give us a police escort to bring us back in time if we had traffic challenges.”

Nonetheless, Justice Amenuvor after hearing the testimony of Mr Mettle-Nunoo, who was unable to physically present in court because of a health condition, accused him of giving false testimony.  

“It is clear that you have not been a truthful witness even on your own evidence in chief, I am putting it to you that your evidence in chief is full of untruth and even if they are true they are a half-truth.”

In his defense, Rojo stated, “that is absolutely untrue, I swore an oath, to tell the truth, and I told the court nothing but the truth.

"It is your client that is being untruthful. She is supposed to declare credible results. It is his client who is not being truthful by not telling Ghanaians the true outcome of the elections," Rojo Mettle Nunoo stressed.