The Ghana Police Service has arrested the Member of Parliament (MP) for Asutifi South, Alhaji Collins Dauda, for his alleged involvement in the disturbances that occurred at Kukuom in the Ahafo Region on Saturday, May 11, 2024, during the ongoing limited voter registration exercise.
One person sustained an injury and is currently receiving treatment at the hospital after chaos at a registration centre.
The police are in pursuit of other suspects in connection with the incident.
Atleast six persons have been arrested by police since the limited voter registration exercise began on May 7.
Less than a week into the exercise, which is expected to last 21 days, several incidents violent incidents have characterised the process.
The Cape Coast North constituency of the Central Region was marked with fear on Thursday [May 9, 2024], as some men allegedly fired gunshots at the scene.
It is reported that the gunshots were fired by thugs guarding the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidate, Horace Ekow Ewusi.
The multiple shots at the registration centre in the early morning were intended to discourage the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) from registering a group of people they bussed from a different location to the registration centre.
The registrants were reportedly moved from Moree in the Abura Asebu Kwamankese constituency.
Reports suggest that the NPP members at the centre vowed to prevent the limited registration exercise from proceeding.
This resulted in an altercation between NPP and NDC members and the subsequent firing of gunshots.
In the Western Region, police busted Bernard Afful, the Mpohor deputy constituency secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), for registering persons who are under 18.
Afful, 59, was arrested together with Rojer Miller, 33, proprietor of Voice of Christ Preparatory School in Mpohor, who assisted the NDC deputy constituency secretary in the illegal act.
The police, acting on the intelligence, went to the school and arrested suspects Rojer Miller and Bernard Afful.
Upon searching the proprietor’s room, the police found five voter ID cards bearing the names of Gildolf Andoh, Christabel Obeng Damoah, Christiana Assan, Spend Love Nana Boah, and Edward Ntiakoh, students of the Voice of Christ Preparatory School.
Afful and Miller, upon interrogation, admitted to having sent the five students to the registration centre to be registered.
Suspects Rojer Miller and Bernard Afful were detained to assist investigations while frantic efforts were being made to invite the five students and obtain their birth certificates to authenticate the accuracy of their ages.
The two have since been arraigned before the court for prosecution.
This happened two days after the police arrested three individuals for engaging in a fight and temporarily disrupting the ongoing limited voter registration exercise at the Tepa Electoral Commission office in the Ashanti Region.
“The three suspects, Abass Abukari, George Vinor, and Abdul Karim, are currently in police custody assisting with the investigation,” the law enforcement agency said in a statement on Wednesday, May 8.
Ghanaians who have attained age 18 and other adult citizens who do not have voter identification cards can participate in the exercise to enable them to vote in the presidential and parliamentary elections later this year.
The EC intends to submit the provisional voter register to the political parties between July 9 and 18, 2024, and mount an exhibition of the voter register between July 15 and 24, 2024.
The final voter register is expected to be submitted to the political parties between August 30 and September 5, 2024.