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| Mohammed Ali and Rashid Imoro were arrested at the Kwashieman Cluster of Schools Collation Centre at the Ablekuma North Constituency in the Greater Accra Region for setting ablaze electoral materials |
ELEVEN suspects, including three who set ablaze electoral materials at the Kwashieman Cluster of Schools Collation Centre at the Ablekuma North Constituency in the Greater Accra Region, have been arrested by the Accra Regional Police Command.
Eight others were arrested at various polling stations at Dansoman, Odorkor, Nima and Korle-Bu on Friday for multiple registration and impersonation.
According to the Regional Crime Officer, Chief Superintendent Frank Adufati, the suspects, after casting their vote, quickly went back to the same polling station to cast another vote and they were arrested.
He said all the suspects were currently in custody at the various police stations and were being processed for court on Monday.
He gave the names of the three who set ablaze the electoral materials as Adani Issifu, 37, a trader from Abossey Okai Zongo, Mohammed Ali, 31, a graphic designer from Ayigbe Town, and Rashid Imoro, a 32-year-old onion seller, also from Ayigbe Town, an Accra suburb.
He said the three were in the company of seven others who stormed the collation centre while counting was in process and started struggling with the security men who managed to rescue the ballot boxes and arrested three of the suspects.
Chief Superintendent Adufati said seven of them managed to escape arrest but an intensive search had been mounted for their arrest.
He said luckily none of the ballot boxes were affected but the thugs managed to get hold of some collation papers which they quickly set ablaze.
The ballot box was rescued by the police and had been transported to the Odorkor Police Station for the final counting of votes.
According to an eyewitness, Mr Nii Allotey, on Saturday evening, after the voting exercise, some land guards and macho men in two cars and on motorbikes and fully armed entered the Kwashieman Collation Centre in the Ablekuma North constituency,and started firing shots into the air and later left later.
He said he managed to get the registration number of one of the cars as GS 3637- 09.
In addition, one of the Electoral Commission (EC) officials who pleaded anonymity said the culprits were believed to have been hired by one of the parliamentary candidates of the constituency.
He indicated that the men forced their way into the collation room despite the presence of security personnel demanding to be shown who the EC officer in charge was but they all refused to mention or point to him.
“We were all terrified by the authority with which the leader of the group asked for the identity of the officer,” he said, adding that when they did not answer, the leader of the group said “then somebody will have to die”.
He said when the police officer in charge heard him say that “then somebody will die”, the police officer confronted him and he left with his men.
In a few minutes, he said, another group of people came with machetes and a pistol and set fire to the collation sheets and after several attempts to open the ballot boxes room failed, they took off but the police were able to arrest three of them.
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