The Deputy General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Haruna Mohammed, has rejected claims by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that the collation process in the Ablekuma North constituency was marred by illegality.
In an interview on Joy FM Top Story on Wednesday, responding to accusations from the NDC, he asserted that all procedures followed during the collation were lawful and transparent.
Mr Mohammed pointed to a court ruling that permitted the continuation of the collation process, explaining that a competent court of jurisdiction granted an application of mandamus to allow the collation and declaration of results to proceed.
“All processes were followed. The law spoke, and we continued collation and declaration. Where lies this particular illegality? Nothing untoward happened. I repeat, nothing untoward happened. There is no illegality,” he stressed.
The Deputy General Secretary urged the NDC to seek legal redress if they believe there were irregularities, highlighting that the results have already been gazetted, making them accessible for any party wishing to file an election petition.
His comments come in response to the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr. Rashid Tanko-Computer, describing the collation process of the Ablekuma North constituency parliamentary results as illegal, insisting they would not accept the results.
Mr Mohammed criticised the NDC for disrupting the collation process and accused them of destroying Electoral Commission (EC) pink sheets.
“Election has been conducted by due process. While collation was ongoing, the NDC came with their boys, disrupted collation, and tore pink sheets of the Commission,” he alleged.
Mr Mohammed explained that the use of scanned pink sheets was in line with standard electoral procedures. He noted that pink sheets are scanned at the constituency collation center before being transported to the designated collation location.
“We have a law governing electronic transactions in this country—Act 772 of 2008. There is every basis to have an electronic copy of a document that can be used for any transaction,” he said.
He added that the scanned copies were a safeguard, especially after the destruction of the original pink sheets by the NDC.
“The NDC, who disrupted and tore these pink sheets, have their own copies. Where are they?” he questioned.
