The campaign team of the Member of Parliament for Yendi, Hon. Farouk Aliu Mahama, has followed with keen interest the conduct of the defeated aspiring parliamentary candidate in the Yendi parliamentary primaries, Hajia Abibata Shani Mahama. In particular, we have taken notice of Abibata’s media comments on the elections that took place on January 27, 2024, at the Yendi SHS, and her purported petition to the National Executive Committee of the Party demanding that the Yendi primary elections be declared null and void.

The Campaign Team of Hon.Farouk Aliu Mahama is aghast and dumbfounded at Abibata’s claims and wild allegations none of which has been substantiated by any iota of evidence from her. In order to set the records straight to keep the general public well-informed on the matters that transpired at the Yendi parliamentary primary elections, the campaign team of Hon. Farouk Aliu Mahama feels compelled to respond to Abibata’s claims and do hereby respond as follows:

1. We wish to state right from the onset that the claims being made by Abibata are baseless, misconceived, blatant falsehoods, and not supported by the incontrovertible facts on the ground. Indeed, the baselessness and falsity of her claims and allegations are exposed by the very irreconcilable contradictions and inconsistencies in her claims. For instance, in one breath, Hajia Abibata claimed she won the elections, yet, in her own petition to NEC, she claimed no one won.
2. Again, in an interview she granted Citi fm on 29th January, 2024, Hajia Abibata claimed that an ink pad was found on the EC Officer during the counting, yet, in her petition to NEC, her claim on what was found on the said EC officer changed from ink pad to ballot papers. Hajia Abibata has also given at least three different figures on the votes counted for Hon. Farouk Aliu Mahama before her people disrupted the exercise culminating in the confusion.
3. The undisputed facts on the chronology of events on that day are that, at the close of polls, and after the ballot papers for both aspiring candidates were sorted, it became very clear to all onlookers that the papers sorted in favour of Hajia Abibata Shani Mahama were less than one-third of that of Hon. Farouk Mahama. Sensing that Abibata had lost the elections, her supporters, led by her elder brother, Murtala Shani Mahama and Aide, Alhassan Iddrisu, stormed the inner (counting) perimeter when the votes garnered by Farouk Mahama were being counted, ostensibly to disrupt the process in clear violation of the law particularly Sections 28 and 40 of the Representation of the People Law, 1992 (PNDCL 284) as amended.
4. In fact, Abibata’s elder brother (Murtala Shani Mahama) has himself confirmed in a media engagement that he stormed the counting perimeter (without accreditation) to protect his sister’s interest. As if to suggest that his sister’s duly accredited agents for the collation were either useless or had been compromised. How flimsy!
5. Video evidence shows clearly that no ballot paper was found on the EC Officer after the National 3rd Vice Chairman ordered for the search to be conducted following their allegations. Only indelible ink pad was found in his EC jacket, which was definitely not in use. His hands were clean of any trace of ink, and there was also no single proof of spoilt ballot at the time.
6. The only conclusion that can be drawn in the circumstances, is that, this whole “Kweku Ananse Story” was created by Abibata and her supporters to justify their unlawful invasion of the collation centre (inner perimeter) to disrupt the collation process upon realizing that Abibata had lost the elections based on the sorted ballot as captured on picture and video evidence.
7. Why would supporters of Hon. Farouk Aliu Mahama disrupt the counting of Farouk’s ballot when it was clear that he had garnered more votes than his opponent? It defies logic. Certainly, this claim coming from Abibata’s camp can only be an afterthought and an inept rationalization of their shameful conduct having realized that their candidate had lost the elections miserably.
8. Fortunately, the Party has not fallen for their trap as the Elections Committee of the Party has, rightly so, declared Hon. Farouk Aliu Mahama as the winner of the elections. For the avoidance of doubt, per the Party’s guidelines and established convention, the Elections Committee duly constituted by the Party is the ONLY BODY in charge of the conduct of the party’s parliamentary primaries.
9. The Electoral Commission of Ghana only comes in to supervise the conduct of the elections by the Elections Committee. So, in case there is inconsistency or uncertainty in the claims of these two bodies, it shall be resolved in favour of the Elections Committee since it is the body conducting the elections.
10. Political parties are not even obliged by law to invite the EC to supervise the conduct of its parliamentary primaries. The law only obliges political parties to necessarily involve the EC to supervise the conduct of its internal elections when it comes to the election of National, Regional and Constituency Party Executives. See Section 17(2) of the Political Parties Act, 2000 (Act 574).
11. However, when it comes to parliamentary primaries, the law allows political parties to devise their own mechanisms for choosing their candidates. It is therefore not surprising that the NPP Constitution in Article 12 talks about SELECTION OF PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATES. It doesn’t say, ELECTION of Parliamentary Candidates. So, the Party will be acting within the confines of the law if it ignores the EC in its processes of selecting its parliamentary candidates for the various constituencies.
12. So, in this case, despite the concerns raised by the EC regarding the non-completion of the exercise before the disruption, the Party, through its duly constituted Elections Committee chaired by the National 3rd Vice Chairman, is not wrong when it declared Hon. Farouk Aliu Mahama as its 2024 Parliamentary Candidate for Yendi based on the overwhelming evidence on the conduct of the primaries.
13. From the preponderance of evidence aforesaid, the National Executive Committee of the Party will be expected to affirm the position of the Party’s Elections Committee and throw out Hajia Abibata’s ill-conceived petition as unmeritorious and vexatious.
14. It is a time-tested principle of law that “NO ONE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO BENEFIT FROM HIS OWN WRONGDOING” which is expressed in Latin Maxim as “ex turpi causa non oritur action”. So, Hajia Abibata cannot be allowed to benefit from the misdeeds of her supporters including her elder brother, who openly confessed that he led the disruption of the elections. At best, they should be severely punished for bringing the name of the party into disrepute contrary to Article 4(7)(g) of the NPP Constitution.
15. To hold otherwise, such as ordering for fresh elections in Yendi will mean that the Party will be setting a very bad precedence where candidates who see that they are losing in internal primaries/elections will be encouraged to mobilize thugs to disrupt the collation of results, knowing very well that the NPP will order for fresh elections. There can only be one truth. This cannot be said enough!

Thank you.

…Signed…

TeamFAM