Former Vice-Presidential candidate Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang has raised concerns about vote buying in the ongoing by-election in Assin North.
According to her, the security agencies must quickly arrest the culprits if the reports are accurate.
She maintains that such practices are illegal and all stakeholders should be worried.
“If this is what is happening, we know it is illegal. The police and the security people are here. I don’t know what they are doing. Everybody should be worried about an allegation of inducement because it goes against the rules. If that is the allegation and it is true, everybody should be worried,” she said on TV3.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) are engaged in a back-and-forth exchange of accusations regarding vote buying in the Assin North by-election.
A Deputy Director of Communications of the NPP, Ernest Owusu Bempah, says the NPP is only facilitating the movement of some voters from remote areas to vote.
However, the Communications Director of the ruling party Richard Ahiagbah said the NPP had not made any arrangements to share monies to voters as that would be too huge an investment to make.
According to him, any doling out of cash to voters for transportation may be in the individual capacity of party members.
He said it is the NDC and its Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, who have been sighted sharing monies.
Meanwhile, the Minority Leader, who has been in the Assin North Constituency for the past few days, vehemently denied this and pointed an accusing finger at the NPP.
“Let them provide evidence. They are saying this to cover their mess,” he said.
The Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam Member of Parliament (MP) said he has not been to any other polling station beside the one opposite the Assin North District Assembly’s office and so cannot fathom where he is said to have been sharing money.