‘I didn’t facilitate Ivorians registration’-Asiedu-Nketiah as he accuses John Boadu of ‘lying’
The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, John Asiedu-Nketiah, has dismissed claims that he led the party to facilitate the registration of 66 Ivorians in the just-ended voter registration in the Banda Constituency.
Rather, he said it was the NDC monitoring team that intercepted the vehicle on which the Ivorians were travelling and reported the matter to the police and immigration.
“The NDC team actually intercepted the Ivorians, prevented them from registering and they were going back. The NDC team was planning to even burn down the foreign registered vehicle carrying the Ivorians into an NPP stronghold called Kabrono.
“They [NPP] succeeded in preventing them from registering but on their way back, the NPP Regional Chairman and the Candidate ordered them to come back to the registration centre and insisted that they should be registered,” he told Joy News.
The NDC General Secretary was reacting to statement made by his counterpart in the NPP, John Boadu accusing him of leading the 66 Ivorians to register for a Ghanaian voter ID.
But Mr Asiedu-Nketiah accused Mr Boadu of lacking facts and engaged in speculations.
He maintained that the NDC used due process to challenge the registration, but the NPP leaders torpedoed the process and got the cards released to the Ivorians, contrary to the country’s electoral laws.
“All the 66 of them were challenged by NDC party agents. In spite of the challenge, the NPP got all their voter ID cards for them to return to Cote d’Ivoire.
“The NDC actually reported the matter to the Banda District police station and it is in the police diary and proceeded to report the matter to the immigration.
“It was the insistence of the NDC that these people were arrested at the border and they were all filmed with their two ID card, Ghana ID card and the Ivorian ID card,” he said.
He said the NDC was pursuing the case, hence he found it strange Mr Boadu who had not been to the area would accuse him of bringing Ivorians to Ghana to register.
“Will I bring people to Cote d’Ivoire and ask people to challenge them?” he asked.
In a widely circulated video, Mr Asiedu-Nketiah was seen challenging military person who had blocked a road said to be leading to a registration centre.
He insisted that the video in question was different from the incident involving the Ivorians.
According to him, he had rushed to the area when he heard the news that the military had blocked the path of a group of Ewe fishermen in a truck as they headed to a registration centre.
He insisted that he did not bus anyone to a registration centre as the fishermen in question lived in the same constituency but plied their trade across the Volta River.
He wondered how an Ivorian registered vehicle crossed into the country at a time borders had been closed.
When Mr Boadu took his turn he insisted that his accusations were based on logic.
“It is a logical deduction,” he said, defending his claim that his opponent was behind the Ivorian illegally registering for Ghana’s voter ID card.
“I’m insisting that those he was leading are those who managed to register.
When he was informed that the NDC claimed it had rather reported the matter to the police, he said, “it is subject to investigations by the security services.”
This is about the fact that if we don’t put a stop to encouraging foreigners who wants to register. In my rounds, if you make a case against people who are not Ghanaians but wants to register, the NDC is unhappy about it.
“Until we are able to put our strong hands with the support everyone on it, punitive action is taken against people like the Keta Circuit has done, we will be encouraging to be part of our system. It is not an ECOWAS register. It is a Ghanaian register.
Meanwhile, the Electoral Commission says it is investigating the matter and would punish its officials who illegally registered the Ivorians.
Banda violence
The voter registration in the Banda Constituency has been characterised with violence, leading to the death of at least one person.
On July 14, a 28-year-old man was stabbed to death in electoral violence at Banda in the Bono Region.
Unidentified people stabbed the deceased, a fresh graduate from the Akim Oda Teacher Training College, in the back after he was allegedly accosted by some persons suspected to be NPP activists.
It is unclear what might have triggered the violence, but some people have attributed it to political tension between the opposition NDC and the governing NPP.
Lawlessness all over.