Justice Alex Turn Away Pink Sheet Security Operatives

Lt Col Larry-Gbevlo Lartey (rtd)

The deployment of national security operatives by Lt Col Larry Gbevlo-Lartey (rtd), National Security Coordinator, to protect the controversial pink sheets at the Supreme Court on Thursday evening, has prompted questions about the real intentions of the security agency, especially after the operatives were turned away by the Judicial Secretary, Justice Alex B. Opoku-Acheampong.

The pink sheets are at the centre of the electoral dispute before the nine-member panel of the Supreme Court hearing the petition of the 2012 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, his running mate Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and party Chairman Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey.

In the heat of the NDC counsel Tsatsu Tsikata’s cross-examination of Dr Bawumia, there was a misunderstanding over the number of pink sheets submitted as exhibits by the petitioners; and the Supreme Court justices ordered a recount, which was to be conducted by KPMG.

Out of the blue, a number of national security operatives appeared at the Supreme Court premises, claiming that they were detailed to protect the pink sheets.

Apprehension gripped millions of Ghanaians who had been following the election petition hearing at the Supreme Court when news about the strange “security officials” hit the airwaves.

The presence of National Security operatives and NDC activists at the court was said to have attracted the attention of some top officials of the court, who engaged them in verbal exchanges, DAILY GUIDE gathered.

They were told in plain language that they were not needed at the court premises.

Thank You!

Chief Justice Georgina Wood

They were said to have received a “no thank you” response from the Judicial Secretary Justice Opoku-Acheampong for the unsolicited service, following which they mounted guard at the gates of the Supreme Court. Their intimidating presence however caused a stir.

The Judicial Secretary yesterday narrated that “at about 6pm on Thursday night, I had a call from Lartey, a certain National Security operative, who indicated that his boss, the National Security Coordinator, wanted to talk to me. He said that because of the Supreme Court order that the pink sheets be counted they wanted to provide security.”

Pink Sheet Protection

Continuing, he said, “I told him that I had to get in touch with my boss. About 20 minutes later I met the national security operatives who said they had come to provide security for the pink sheets. I told them that the exhibits are well protected and are not accessible to outsiders.”

The operatives, Justice Opoku-Acheampong said, decided that they would provide protection at the gate which they did.

However, he said there was no need for their presence because they were intimidating the staff of the Judicial Service.

“I told them that their presence was intimidating. Since the case started, we contacted the national security for scanners and after two days there were criticisms about their presence and we told them to withdraw a bit and allow the police to provide security,” he told Citi Fm.

He dismissed suggestions that the Service had requested for protection for the pink sheets.

Northern Youth

He recalled how three years ago some elements of the Northern Youth For Justice, a group of NDC sympathizers, had stormed the court. Since then, he said, “the Police provide security on days on which there are hearings of high profile cases and leave after the proceedings and our own security would take over.

“They come with national security but leave together. Their action on Thursday was extraordinary, out of the norm….” he stressed.

Gbevlo

Mr Gbevlo-Lartey however denied sending his boys to the court to take charge of the pink sheets.

“Nobody has done any such thing. Nobody has demanded the keys from anyone,” he said.
He said his officials were on the court premises to secure the pink sheets.

Mr Gbevlo-Lartey said the presence of the security operatives at the court’s registry was purely as a result of a revised security strategy following the directive from the judges.
He told Citi Fm that the security agencies went to the Supreme Court to give protection at the instance of the judiciary.

He added that “out of the performance of the mission that was given to them, there is a certain development about some documents of the court which need to be secured and some instructions have been issued by the judges as to what needs to be done.”
But his statement had been dismissed by the Judicial Service.

News about the gate-crashers spread across town like wild fire causing understandable fear and panic for the brief period that it held.

Speculations about their intention were mixed, but most people suspected that it was anything but positive, given the importance of the documents pertaining to the ongoing election petition hearing in the custody of the Supreme Court.

Doubts about whether the strangers were even operatives of the security services aggravated the apprehension of the Judicial Service staffers even more.

Police Intervention

Matters were put to rest, however, when the Police sent in a platoon of uniformed personnel to avert any eventuality after the Judicial Service requested for a heightened security.

A Chief Superintendent of the Greater Accra Regional Command’s Operations Unit was spotted yesterday morning leading a changed guard detail which had been on the premises since the previous night.

Coming on the heels of the Supreme Court order for the pink sheet count by KPMG, there could not have been a more frightening story than suspicious-looking men claiming to belong to the national security apparatus and had been detailed to guard the court shortly after an order for a counting of the controversial pink sheets.

Exhibits

DAILY GUIDE can confirm that a report on the status of the exhibits in the custody of the court showed that everything was intact.

Staff of the court registry were said to be unruffled in the face of doubts that had been cast over the actual number of pink sheets served the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

DAILY GUIDE learnt that the auditing firm KPMG had been formally written to regarding the counting of the pink sheets served the NDC in line with a Supreme Court order when a disagreement ensued between a lawyer of the petitioners and his NDC counterpart.

Police

A press release dated May 10, 2013 and signed by the Greater Accra Regional Police Command’s Public Relations Officer, DSP Freeman Tettey presented another picture of the Supreme Court episode.

According to the statement, the Police had responded to a request from the Judicial Service to, as he put it, “expand security coverage at the premises of the Supreme Court following a ruling for the counting of the pink sheets.”

The Police, the statement went, therefore detailed personnel for both night and non-court sitting days including weekends.

The police presence, the statement explained, was not intended to intimidate people or compromise or tamper with any exhibit in the custody of the court.

They assured the public that the Supreme Court was not under siege as was being suggested in some sections of the media, adding that “the Police presence is on the orders or invitation of the Judicial Service with the security arrangements regulated by the Judicial Service and their security playing a frontline role.”

Contradiction

The statement contradicted an Oman FM report on Thursday night during their “Boiling Point” programme when the host announced that the Police PRO had said he was on his way to the Supreme Court to find out exactly what was happening, an indication that he was unaware of the presence of the strangers.

In spite of the insistence of the Judicial Secretary that they did not ask for any protection from the national security apparatus and the police, DSP Freeman Tettey maintained otherwise.

Condemnation

Pressure group, Let My Votes Count Alliance (LMVCA) joined the fray, condemning the action in no uncertain terms.

In a statement issued in Accra yesterday, spokesman for the group, David Boateng Asante stated that “we want to make it clear to the National Security that none of its operatives should attempt to tamper with pink sheets, serving as evidence of massive irregularities that ensured that President Mahama was declared winner of the December 2012 elections.

“Any attempt to tamper with the pink sheets at the registry will not be countenanced”, he said, insisting that the “National Security must stay away from the pink sheets.”

Tampering With Numbers

For them, the mere presence of these operatives at the Supreme Court Registry meant that they wanted to tamper with the numbers to ensure it conformed to the pink sheets they were served, making reference to the fact that “during the collation of the pink sheets by the petitioners, a similar raid was conducted by persons from the National Security and the Police in an attempt to seize pink sheets and scuttle the evidence-gathering process.”

Leadership of the LMVCA therefore served notice that any attempt to tamper with the pink sheets “will be resisted at all cost” since according to them, “Ghana has come a long way in our fight for democracy and Ghanaians will not sit quietly and watch a group of persons try, as they did in the December 2012 elections, to subvert the sovereign will of the people.”

Egbert Faibelle Jnr, a member of the petitioners’ legal team was of the opinion that the national security had no business being at the Supreme Court.

“Gbevlo-Lartey is a lawyer and knows that the Supreme Court in its orders appointing KPMG to audit the pink sheets did not make any orders appointing National Security to guard or protect the pink sheets. So on what basis did he send his men to the court to protect the pink sheets? As we say ‘Quo Warranto!-upon what authority? Gbevlo! Contempt shall be your portion!” he said on his Facebook wall.

Petitioners

The legal team for the petitioners challenging the results of the 2012 presidential elections also waded into the story about the strange security operatives who sought to render protection to the pink sheets, especially their demand to be given access to the Registry of the court.

Frank Davis, a member of the legal team, said that should the matter be confirmed, they would raise it when the court sits on Monday.

Curiosity

“It is very curious, and I just cannot understand why it should happen and if we should actually investigate the circumstances and find out it is true then we will have no option but to put the matter before the court on Monday,” he told Citi FM yesterday. He added: “If indeed national security attempted to have access to our pink sheets then that was very unfortunate. It has serious implications for our justice system and it turns to bring the administration of justice into disrepute.”

Lawyer Davis went on: “They are seriously interfering with the court process, and these are legal issues being held in the highest court of the land; whether they are national security or not they are not above the law.”

The lawyer asked: “Did the court order national security to go for the keys to the court registry? What has this order got to do with national security? There are much more serious security lapses to be handled by the national security and the court is capable of managing its own affairs.”

NDC Lawyer

On his part, a member of the NDC legal team, Kojogah Adawudu said National Security had every right to safeguard all the documents in the possession of the court registry.

According to him, the election petition hearing was of national interest, hence the need for National Security to provide maximum security at the Supreme Court premises.

Mr Adawudu added that National Security operatives had always been part of the security arrangements at the Supreme Court premises.

He stated: “There was nothing wrong with the National Security operatives requesting to protect the pink sheets and other relevant documents tendered as evidence by the petitioners.”